Rules for Being Human by Kim Wolinski

The original author for the following rules is unknown. I have adapted them from a version by Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

The Rules for Being Human

When you were born, you didn’t come with an owner’s manual; you have had to learn the rules the hard way. The following rules are intended to help you lighten up and make your life easier.

1. You will receive a body. Your body is your Earth suit. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around. You have chose its shape on a deeper level; leave it be or change it. Either way, love it.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life On Planet Earth. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You make like the lessons, hate them or think them irrelevant. You may learn them at your own pace, but you can only be expelled or leave once.
3. There is no failure and no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation–trial and error. The so-called failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.” Learn from everything and everyone.
4. You will have classmates, teachers and students. You will have a choice of who is in your life and why. All people are your teachers. Some will be your students and still others will be enjoyable classmates for play and fun. Make clear choices about how and when others are in your life. Most people spend far too many years in drama class. Others are merely mirrors of and for you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate in yourself; that you are running away from or striving for; fear or desire.
5. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you’ve learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson. If you don’t learn easy lessons, they become harder. You will know you’ve learned a lesson when your mindset and actions change.
6. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. Every person, every incident is the universal teacher. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
7. “There” is no better than “here.” Nothing leads to happiness. When you’re “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that again looks better than “here.”
8. What you learn in Life on Planet Earth–what you create of your life–is up to you. There are three kinds of people:

   **those who make things happen,

   **those who watch what happens,

   **those who wonder what happened.

   Life is like a movie; you may feel like a bit player, but you have the power to become screen writer, casting director, choreographer, producer and director. It’s your movie. You have all the tools and resources you need; what you do with them is up to you. Notice that you do have the courage to take the necessary risks and that fear is normal; take charge of your life. If you don’t someone else will.

9. Your answers live inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust. Then you’ll realize that you are the spiritual being you’ve been seeking.
10. You will tend to forget all this.

© Kim Wolinski, Dr. DeClutter, Taken from: Letting Go With All Your Might. Kim has been a college teacher in five institutes for Nurses CEUs, Teachers and Professional Support Staff CEUs and Adult Education. She is an author and contributor to national magazines and journals, as well as a blogger. Kim writes and publishes two online newsletter each month (see Dr. DeClutter’s Blog). She also participated in a teleseminar with Meggin, When Life Gives You Lemons, Put ’em In Your Bra! Lift and Separate the Challenges of Change.

And if you liked these tips, feel free to check out Putting Pockets in Your Personal Life: 52 Tips to Implement Immediately. If you know you are operating without any “pockets,” and you realize that you have lost sight of the difference between calm and crazed, then this booklet will help you regain that realization and subsequently DO something about it.

Inside, you’ll find practical ideas to implement, letting you actually choose to put in pockets in your personal life (i.e., some protected space, both the physical and metaphorical). With these 52 tips in-hand, and you’ll be well on your way to greater peace of mind and productivity.