The Rules for Being Human

(Photo: Dynamic Graphics/Thinkstock)

There seems to be a lot of discontent in society, in our workplaces, and our homes right now. I know I have experienced my share of distress in the last few months. I find myself trying to make sense of situations that are either nonsensical or way outside my control and influence.

Over my many years, many a person has occupied a chair in my home or office to talk things over. I wish I could solve people's problems; most often I only had big shoulders and a huge heart. This life didn't come with an owner's manual, but Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott wrote a little book that provides some guidelines that may help you as they have helped me.

1. You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.
2. You will be presented lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life." Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.
4. A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lesson to be learned. 
6. "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" becomes a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will look better to you than your present "here."
7. Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate in yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. 
9. All the answers lie inside you. All you need to do is to look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unraveling the double helix of inner knowing.

(From the book "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules" by Cherie Carter-Scott)

Whether or not you agree with these rules, we need something to keep us aligned and on course with purpose and direction. Just like the Wizard of Oz told his Dorothy and her friends, each of us has what we need inside ourselves if only we believed!

---

About the Author: Pam McDonald is a writer/editor for BLM Wildland Fire Training and Workforce Development and member of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee. The expressions are those of the author.