“You must play by the rules”

You must play by the rules. Everything has rules. You want to play chess then learn the rules. You want to play soccer then learn the rules. You want to play tennis then learn the rules. You want to play life then….hang on a minute…. Who wrote the rules of life?

Who wrote the rules to your life? Did you?

When you look at your life you begin to realise that most of the time you are living by someone else’s rules. The rules made by your family, the education system, the culture you grew up in. The rules made to ensure you conform and are easy to manage.

But when you look around you can see many successful people who don’t conform to your rules.

They see a different way. They have accepted that there is more to life than conforming. More to life than accepting what everyone else accepts. They see that it is important to be different. It is important to be true to yourself. It is important to live by your own values.

Yes they get it wrong sometimes. Yes they cause difficulty for others sometimes. Yes they cause others to rethink their position sometimes but they realise that the more they live according to their own principles. The more they live according to their inbuilt values the more chance they have of being successful.

When you conform to other people’s rules you are reducing your opportunities. When you conform to other people’s rules you are reducing your potential.

Take a look at your life:

Do the rules, you live your life by, get the best out of you or are they designed to keep you in a box?
Do the rules, you live your life by, help you to become successful or do they reduce your chances?

What do you do now, that your grand mother would have been really embarrassed at doing?
What did you do today that 25 years ago would have been frowned upon?

If, people like you had stuck to the rules women would still be living a restricted life. If, people like you had stuck to the rules men and women would still be living together in a ‘pretend marriage´ rather than face the facts that their relationship doesn’t work. School children would still be passive and expected to repeat everything the teacher said. Divorced women would still be shunned by society. There would still be a lack of opportunity for the have nots to develop their abilities.

When you look around you can see many successful people who didn’t conform to the rules.

Imagine Dali sticking to the rules. Would you go to see his art?

Imagine if Elvis Presley had stayed within the rules. Where would we be now?

Henry Ford broke the rules and produced cars on a production line.

Bill Gates broke the rules by believing that every household could have a computer.

Steve Jobs broke the rules and gave us the Apple.

Martin Luther King broke the rules and gave us a different way of living.

Just stop for a minute. Think of someone, either alive or dead, you admire.

What is it about them you like?

When we did this, all the people in our list had tremendous courage. They all stood up for what they believed in. They all broke the accepted rules of the day to give us a better world to live in.

In our experience rule bound behaviour stifles growth. Rule bound behaviour stifles the individual.

Are you a person who plays by the rules or are you living by your values and making the world a better place to live in?

Good Luck

Graham and Julienwww.desktop-meditation.comnn