BY KENNETH SEAKENS
By chance I came across Einstein’s Rules for Life which are well worth repeating and considering. They are reproduced below:
Rule #1: Expend your efforts on the things that matter.
Rule #2: Do things you love, even if you’re terrible at them.
Rule #3: Have a puzzle mindset.
Rule #4: Think deeply, both long and hard, about the things that truly fascinate you.
Rule #5: Don’t let politics fill you with either rage or despair.
Rule #6: Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
Rule #7: Science, truth and education are for everyone, not just the privileged few.
There is much to ponder in those simple lines, especially in these troubled times. Take them one at a time and apply the rule to your own life:
Rule 1. Do you waste your life and energy on things that don’t really amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, as Rick suggested to Ilsa? Do your concerns improve the lot of mankind? Or even yourself? Do you neglect other, more important to your wellbeing, things that impact much closer to home? Time, perhaps, to give some thought to placing things in the proper order.
Rule 2. Doing that which you love is, self evidently, good for you regardless of your actual abilities. It brings, at least to you, happiness, a sense of accomplishment, joy even in simple things. Even pride. Successfully building anything from IKEA unaided, for example. Sailing, skiing, cricket, running, writing, singing and a myriad of other simple things no matter whether you are a master or simple journeyman. If you love it, do it.
Rule 3. Question everything. Accept nothing on face value. Investigate. Employ your critical faculties. Amazing as it may seem not everything you are told is true. Governments, newspapers, media, X, “experts”, influencers, celebrities, scientists, priests, bosses, the soi-disant elite are not necessarily as conversant with the truth as they might aver. Think things through, examine alternative opinions and form your own conclusions. Do not accept being spoon-fed.
Rule 4. It is always worth taking the time and trouble to consider the world and your place in it in a measured and deeper fashion. Conclusions which you draw for yourself and by yourself have far greater meaning and relevance for you and you alone. It matters not whether somebody else, even somebody you respect draws different conclusions. What matters most to you is your conclusions. They are what you live by.
Rule 5. It is difficult in these “interesting” times, as the old Chinese curse has it, to follow this rule. Conflicts of morality, actions, orders and consequences litter the political scene all over the world. Can any politician anywhere be trusted to have your best interests at heart? Probably not. As my old dad used to say “nothing any politician says or does is good for me”. But raging at politics is, in itself, unhelpful. Be practical instead. Methods of changing the status quo abound and they are not necessarily violent ones. Consider Gandhi. Peaceful non compliance freed a continent. Whether for the better or worse it is too soon to tell. Neither despair. Things have a habit of sorting themselves out even if it takes a while. Remember Shelley’s Ozymandias. He got his in the end despite what was doubtless a despotic rule.
Rule 6. Never was a truer word written. Blind obedience. The succour of those who would dominate your lives. Writ large in the last few years as full and independent enquiry has now established. And still attempts to scare the populace abound. And still people obey diktats. Goebbels must be laughing fit to burst. See Rule 3 and apply. It might just save your life and sanity. Statements and commands by authority are to be challenged at every turn. They are not written on tablets of stone. Except by Miliband of course and look where that got him. Always consider cui bono. And always follow the money.
Rule 7. A statement of the obvious but it is noticeable how few follow its precepts. All should be entitled to the benefits accruing to pursuit of these 3 matters but how many in reality enjoy them in full? Some material benefits they have brought certainly but to the fullest extent? Hardly. Just think of the benefits accrued by failed politicians and wonder.
All in all one could usefully add Einstein’s rules to Jordan Peterson’s 12 Precepts for Life (listed below) and certainly improve one’s lot. One life, make of it what you will but pursuit of these will do you no harm as doctors once espoused when they took the Hippocratic Oath.
Kenneth Seakens is a recently retired family solicitor from Surrey. For more of Ken’s wisdom, please visit his new weblog here.
Peterson’s 12 Precepts:
“Stand up straight with your shoulders back.”
“Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.”
“Make friends with people who want the best for you.”
“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”
“Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.”
“Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.”
“Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient).”
“Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie.”
“Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.”
“Be precise In Your Speech.”
“Do not bother children while they are skateboarding.”
“Pet a cat when you encounter one in the street.”