Your Edge

The Rules of Being Human

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.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a fulltime,
informal school called Life. Each day, you will be
presented with opportunities to learn what you need to
know. The lessons presented are often completely different
from those you think you need.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a
process of trial, error and experimentation. You can learn
as much from failure as you can from success. Maybe
more.
A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will
be presented to you in various forms until you have learned
it. When you have leaned it (as evidenced by a change in
your attitude and ultimately your behavior) then you can go
on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no stage of
life that does not contain some lessons. As long as you live
there will be something more to learn.
“There” is no better than “here”. When your “there”
has become a “here” you will simply discover another
“there” that will again look better than your “here.” Don’t
be fooled by believing that the unattainable is better than
what you have.
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or
hate something about another person unless it reflects
something you love or hate about yourself. When tempted
to criticize others, ask yourself why you feel so strongly.
What you make of your life is up to you. You have
all the tools and resources you need. What you create with
those tools and resources is up to you. Remember that
through desire, goal setting and unflagging effort you can
have anything you want. Persistence is the key to success.
The answers lie inside of you. The solutions to all of
life’s problems lie within your grasp. All you need to do is
ask, look, listen and trust yourself.

From the West Hartford Counseling Center, published in the Ann Arbor Masonic News