Instructions for Life

I find it helpful to distill raw data into brief, manageable and usable lists of information. It's fairly easy to summarise a movie or taining manual but, how do we distill life experiences? What to include and what to omit? Here's one distilled list that I find worthy.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
   
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
   
3. Follow the three Rs:
   • Respect for self
     
   • Respect for others and
     
   • Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
   
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
   
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
   
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
   
8. Spend some time alone every day.
   
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
   
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
    
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time
    
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
    
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
    
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
    
15. Be gentle with the earth.
    
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
    
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
    
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
    
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

The fourth item caught my attention: "learn the rules so you know how to break them properly". At first reading, I think I would have written "Find the bigger rule behind the small rule." However, the instruction is best as it is written. It's interesting to think about breaking rules "properly".

I found the above list on Matt's blog and have reprinted it with his permission.

The Dalai Lama is the author of this list.