You wonder why today's kids do not have a concept of what life is really about.
You wonder why today's kids do not have the morality and standards that we had as kids.
You wonder why today's kids do not have the work ethics that we did.
Maybe they have not learned the rules of life.
Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
Have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
This is quoted from a presentation given by Bill Gates.
These are rules that Bill Gates defines as essentials for life and as far as I am concerned; truer words were never spoken. Why is it that no one can understand that equality has a place in life. We all have the equal chance to prove our abilities, learn and proper. It is to what degree that we want to 'work' in or to get there.
I showed this to some high school kids recently and believe it or not, they all agreed with all 11 rules, so evidently the system is losing once again. Kids today understand that they are not prepared for what is out in the real world. After talking to some people that graduated two years ago, their viewpoint is that they would go back to school and teach the schools something about life and learning. Maybe they will turn out okay after all!
With all of the teacher's conferences that will be available in the near future, I am hoping that some of the rules on this list are discussed. Maybe the wrong policies for a school system can be corrected. After all, isn't that what learning is all about-learning, making mistakes and correcting them. Now wouldn't that be a bright idea?
Just think, we would have kids that learn how to work, it would stop bullying, employers would have a heck of a workforce (it might even bring back the loyalty of management for their employees) and people would once again earn the right to be proud of their accomplishments. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
In this time of a bad economy and money being tight for all of us, try a new kind of investing-invest in tomorrow and our kids. Give them the same opportunities that we had, the chance to learn from life itself and the ability to succeed.
Organizing life circumstances can only make things better, create less stress and build a foundation for a better future. Help our kids to be able to help themselves, by giving everyone an equal opportunity to prosper and learn. Ask your kids about these rules and you will find out that they 'do' have an opinion on life, rules and the school system policies. Maybe now, it is our turn to learn---learn from mistakes and life's cycle, of what goes around comes around.
As an industry expert and motivational speaker, Jan Hayner presents workshops and presentations on time management, green cleaning, time saving techniques for cleaning, overcoming procrastination, maximizing personal productivity, getting organized, organized parenting, and living a simpler, more fulfilling life. For more articles go to www.organizingandcleaning.com.
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