Category: My Rules

“You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.” – Ethel Barrymore

“Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.” – Alan Alda

What’s the point of things without a good sense of humor? Why make my list of rules, if I can’t laugh at how ridiculous that is? A life taken too seriously is a terribly boring affair. So, I made a rule to remind myself to step back and laugh at the stupid and/or silly things I do on a frequent basis. A reminder to laugh at myself, instead of doubting myself.

“I’m beginning to think that to hope isn’t the same as to expect something. To hope is to believe that life is an acceptable chaos.” – Goenawan Mohamad

“I smile at every circumstance that comes my way because I don’t expected life to be an easy journey.” – Edmond Mbiaka

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. I hold that to be true, but I also hold the contrary to be true: anything that can go right, will go right. This rule calls for preparation for the Murphy’s Law, while also calling for maintaining a positive mindset in hope of things going right. In that, this rule is one of the cornerstone rules following a similar theme of my rules: taking responsibility for your life.

“There is a time for everything, … a time to kill and a time to heal, … a time to weep and a time to laugh, … a time to search and a time to give up, … a time to love and a time to hate” – King Solomon of Israel

This is one of my rules that I would feel all of my rules would be incomplete without. Each rule has its time and place, and each rule has a time and place in which it does not belong and should be broken. Expanding even further, however, this goes for more-or-less everything in life: everything has a time and place in which it belongs and a time and place in which it does not belong. This rule calls to consider each time and place and learn the wisdom to know what belongs when and where.

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.” – Rainer Maria Milke

 On the surface, saying such a thing as “Seek the beauty in everything” seems cheesy, and somewhat not so difficult. The truth is: it is more difficult than it seems. In the worst moments of life, there is a grand beauty to the bad sides, and this rule calls to seek that even in those times. It also calls to seek the beauty in surroundings and in others, regardless of preexisting bias and preferences.