You will forget all this.

The next rule in The Rules for being Human

Rule NO. 10 You will forget all this. You will forget all the above rules unless you regularly practice some means of staying focused and grounded in the present. Your ego will continually try to trick you into blaming your past or becoming anxious about the realities of life.

Rule 10 reminds us how easily we can forget and become trapped in a cycle of blame, anxiety and /or depression if we do not stay focused and grounded in the present. It is true, we cannot change the past; we must do what we need to do in coming to some form of peace with it but it cannot be changed. We cannot capture, predict or control the future but we need to face it with hope and courage. All we have is the present and to begin each new day with resilience and the determination that for as much as it lies within me, I will make the most of today; this indeed is a gift.

Following is a post of the rules in context. It is my hope that you will find some that you can embrace.

Rule No.1 You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it but it will be yours for as long as you live. How you take care of it or fail to take care of it can make an enormous difference in the quality of your life.

Rule No.2 You will learn lessons. We are enrolled in a full time informal school called life. Each day, we are presented with opportunities to learn what we need to know. The lessons presented are often completely different from those we think we need.

Rule No.3 There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. We learn as much from failure as we can from success. Maybe more.

Rule No.4 A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to us in various forms until we have learned it. When we have learned it (as evidenced by a change in our attitude and ultimately our behaviour) then we can go on to the next lesson

Rule No. 5 Learning lessons does not end. There is no stage of life that does not contain some lessons. As long as we live there will be something more to learn.

Rule No.6 There is no better than “here”. When our “there” becomes a here, we will simply discover another “there” that will again look better than our “here”. Don’t be fooled by believing that the unattainable is better than what we have.

Rule No.7 Others are merely mirrors of you. We cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something we love or hate about ourselves.

Rule No.8 What we make of our life is up to us. We have all the tools and resources we need. What we create with those tools and resources is up to us.

Rule No.9 The answers lie inside us. The solutions to all of life’s problems lie within our grasp. All we need to do is ask, look, listen and trust.

Rule No.10 You will forget all this. You will forget all the above rules unless you regularly practice some means of staying focused and grounded in the present. Your ego will continually try to trick you into blaming your past or becoming anxious about the realities of life.