Rules are great when they work in your favour, but are absolutely the worst when they are against you. Who made these rules anyway?
There is so much out there that one can accomplish, with or without rules, yet there are rules for everyone and at times there are rules for everything.
Personally, I love rules; they act as a referee when the playing field is unequal. A lot can be said about rules being there to help everyone in the game, whether it’s the game of life, business, school or even relationships, the rules are not there to help anyone, but to give everyone a fair and equal chance to succeed.
Those are the rules for everyone, default rules if you will.
The rules that separate the winners from the wannabes are the rules you make for yourself, that only apply to you.
This is where the saying that everyone has their own future in their hands finally made sense. No matter what one does, the final decision is always in their hands, it’s yours to make and only you can bare the consequences of it, be it good or not. Anyone can make rules for anything, but how you go about executing them is entirely up to you, the results will speak for themselves.
I had a few conversations with people I considered successful and read countless stories and books on some of the most successful men and women ever to walk the face of the earth and I found out that their success was mostly derived from their own set of rules.
While most of the rules do overlap, I found that each one of them has their own rules and play by those own rules vigorously.
That is how they get ahead of their competition and more importantly and impressively it’s how they stay ahead for long periods of time.
That’s also how they overcame hurdles in their way and how they stayed sane and in some cases how they lost it. They simply played by their rules.
So in this game of life, we should all respect the rules of life, the Ten Commandments, good manners and etiquette, etc, because those make sure we have a level playing field and respect your fellow humans.
But to compete and win at the game you have to add your own rules and stick to them. Play by your own rules.
*Olavi Popyeinawa has a diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution and is currently studying law, LLB at the University of Namibia. He writes on youth matters. Twitter: @ OlaviPopyeinawa and olavipopyeinawa@gmail.com