You want rules because you’re uncertain.
Rules are easy, prescriptive. They don’t required consideration. You’re overextended already. Why not do what somebody else has already decided is the best idea?
And yet, we often hear, “Learn the rules. Then break them.”
I agree wholeheartedly. Rules are great while you’re learning. They create structure, form, give you something to lean on while you grow.
After a while, though, you outgrow them. Instead of helping, they hinder. You see why they’re there, but you also see that they limit.
Let them go.
You now possess the maturity and wisdom to decide things on a case-by-case basis. You don’t throw the rules aside completely, but now they’re merely guidelines.
Occasionally, this can be quite scary. It requires you to take responsibility for your decisions, for one thing. For another, you’ll likely meet powerful resistance from others, who demand to know why the rules no longer apply to you. They will be angry. They will attempt to shame you, perhaps to punish you.
You have my permission to ignore them.
They are in a cage but cannot see the open door. That’s very sad, but you will not be able to free them, for they do not feel their shackles.
But you will experience a curious euphoria– a sense of magic and possibility such as never before. And you will find others like you, and together, you will build things beyond imagining.
Grow the fuck up. Break some rules.
[ssbp]
