I got this in my email from a former boss, of all people, lol. In light of recent events at home, I’m thinking this is a well timed email.

Yesterday, as I spot checked my son’s text messages, I came across a rant in his drafts that was apparently destined for me at some point. He says he was just expressing his feelings. Which I immediately addressed and told him that he can feel any way that he wants, but if I think he’s wrong, or could use a change in perspective, I’m going to take the liberty of correcting him.

He was essentially cussing me out because he doesn’t think it’s fair that I have him make tea and don’t often make it myself. Even went so far as to tell us what I should do with my money.

The boy had enough cojones to type that out on his little cell phone but was instantly in tears when called on it.

Due to the difficulties I have been facing in my life because others don’t realize the following rules are always in effect, I’m posting them for all to see. Read them, memorize them, know them – they are all true.

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’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.

Show the kids!

It’s a common sentiment, “Walk a mile in my shoes”, or, “Try to relate,” it’s easy to tell someone to try to relate to someone else, but is it as easy to do?

The truth is we are a self involved people. It’s hard to see past ourselves, our problems, our families and our hardships. I know we all mean well, at least most of us do, and we’d like to think we consider other people’s feelings pretty consistently, but do we really?

I don’t think so. If that were true and we were really good about empathizing with each other, the crime rates wouldn’t be as high and there would be less victims overall in every walk of life.

When you come across someone who gets under your skin, or makes you very angry with their actions, Stop. Take a breath. If you know this person well enough to know their circumstances, consider them before you become emotional, is there something in that persons’ life that is causing them to react to this situation in a way that they may not otherwise?

Have a little moment to yourself and think about the other person, what they might be going through, what kind of difficulties they could be facing in life, even if all you can muster is, “They must be having a bad day” that still gives you the mental understanding that there’s another person involved in this besides you, including whatever has happened to them today.

Your next question to yourself is this: Do I have to make this day harder on them? Immediately after that, ask yourself this: Can I make their day better?

Do you hold the key to a smile on that persons’ face? Use it! Can you do something to lighten their load and make life a little more bearable for them today? Do it! What do you have to lose by helping someone out today?

I challenge you this week to do one thing each day to bring a smile to someone’s else’s face, it doesn’t matter who or how easy or how hard it was, do it and then come back here and tell me about it, how did it make you feel to be the source of a smile?

Changing the shoes you’re seeing the world in can change your perspective drastically.