RULE TO BREAK

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

I suppose this applies to a few things in life, such as cupboard doors and biscuits. But most things of any complexity that ain’t broke at least need maintaining, or they pretty soon will be. Your car may run nicely, but you have to look after it if you want it still to be going in a year or two.

If your life ain’t broke, that doesn’t mean you can just chug along aimlessly, waiting for the next pothole to trip you up. Which is exactly what it will do if you don’t look where you’re going. It may be fun when you’re 20, but by 40 you’ll wonder why you haven’t made it any further down the road.

You have to look up, look ahead, keep setting yourself targets and dreams and ambitions and objectives. Good enough isn’t good enough. You can do better than that. As soon as your life starts getting too comfortable, shake things up a bit. Don’t wait for it to break before you fix it. Find some new stimulation to energize you, some kind of challenge that keeps you excited.

Otherwise you’ll get bored. And it’s easy to go on being bored in a comfortable, ain’t broke kind of way, until you realize that years have slipped by and you’ve achieved nothing. What are you going to leave behind when you’re gone? A comfortable stagnation, like a cosy cushion no one sits on any more? Is that honestly good enough for you? It shouldn’t be. Life is a wonderful, exciting, thrilling, fascinating privilege, and if we’re lucky enough to be here, we should make an effort to prove that existence worthwhile.

Find your own way to justify your existence – whatever works for you. I don’t care if you save stray dogs or produce wonderful artworks, pass on an old skill or go into politics, help the sick or design a garden. Just keep looking for ways to repay the gift of being allowed to be here for a lifetime. Show Fate or the gods or whoever you believe in that life isn’t being wasted on you, that you’re making good use of your time.

When it comes to your life I’d say that ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is about as defeatist as you can get. And we Rules players certainly aren’t defeatists. We roar and shout and make our voice heard – somewhere, by someone who will appreciate it. So let’s hear no more of this silly, idle, leave-things-as-they-are talk. If it ain’t broke, that’s a great starting point for improving it.