My 10 Rules Of Life

Recently I finished reading "The One Memory Of Flora Banks." In it Flora suffers from amnesia and she decided to make a list with her "10 Rules Of Life." Every time she has an afflatus she writes the rule down - otherwise she is going to forget about it in a few hours. Then she lives by these rules and follows them. Some are pretty normal like "Always try to get a window seat, so you can tell exactly where you are" and others stand out a little bit "Do not stray into polar bears' territory"  even though this does make sense in context

Inspired by this part of the story, I set out and wondered what my "10 Rules of Life" are. After all, everyone lives after certain principles like Carpet diem or "don't make any calls to your ex after 3 AM." I pondered what are the rules that I live by:

1) Always buy men's hoodies:

This is a golden rule in life. There are various reasons why: for one they are actually made to be warm - unlike women's hoodies which are seemingly made to be ... cute and cold? I don't know why the fashion industry thinks that women don't need as much cloth to be warm as men. Even so, other advantages are that they are always comfortable and fit, nobody is ever going to know if you wear a bra underneath. But most importantly, you can do "THE thing." This can vary from just hiding your wrists, and end up with being able to stuff three forth of your body into the hoodie. Bliss.

2) Never make any decisions after 2 AM

Just don't. You don't need to buy those DVDs on amazon right now. No, your ex does not need the message. Hell no, it's not a good idea. Never make any decisions after 2 AM, go to bed, have a nice and restful sleep and considered everything in the morning again.


3) Keep a hairband with you ....

... provided your hair is long enough to need to hairband. If you have short hair, you can skip to the next rule.

I felt it is helpful to always keep a hairband with me any given situation. You will never know, when you need to carry a box of heavy paper from the storage to the printer. In that case you don't want to get your hair all tangled up. Or even worse, driving down a beautiful road, letting the windows down and then you end up eating the ends of your mane. Been there, done that ....

Thus, I always keep a spare hairband on my wrist, and another is secured on my gear-stick.


4) "Champions never give up" aka "be the #2 Porsche of your life"

This is related to last year's Le Mans victory. Some of you may know - she typed being a bit optimistic - that the #2 Porsche came back into the pits due to the hybrid failure. They spent a staggering three hours being repaired before they headed back out and rejoined the field in P55.

As the race progressed, the LMP fought its way through the field, and in the very end they came out as the victors. Not only that, the #2 Porsche proceeded to get five wins in a row during the following WEC races, won the drivers' title, and alongside the #1 Porsche secured the manufacturer's title as well.

Had the Porsche team decided that the damage was too grand things would have not fallen into their hands and they would not have won. This goes to show that you should never give up even if the final goal seems daunting, and too big of a challenge. Hence, champions never give up - or in a more cryptic way: "Be the #2 Porsche of your life."

5) If you go to a foreign county learn "hello/good day", "Thank you" and "please" in that language

I always thought that it would be a nice gesture if tourists respect the language of the country they are visiting. Not everyone speaks English and while I am not asking that you need to know every language of every country that you ever visit, I found that it is received well if you know the basics: "Hello", "Good Day", "Thank you", and "please".

This shows that you are trying and interested while being respectful of the country's culture. Even if you end up stuttering out the most broken "Guten Tag" or "Servus" in Austria before giving your order in English.

6) When something makes you happy, it makes you happy and nothing is wrong with that #NoShame

This should not even be rule. However, we've all been in the situation where we've loved something to BITS and when you tell someone about it you are either met with a less enthusiastic response or, even worse, being mocked for it. This leads to retreating and rather not telling anyone about your ten page essay about the fluffiness of Alonso's hair.

When something makes you happy, no matter if this is a sport, a book series, a cute picture of a cat, or a television show, it should not be something that you should have to feel ashamed about. Your happiness about something is paramount. Thus, it would be silly to feel ashamed about it.


7) Bad Cookies Are Better Than No Cookies

I am not sure if this needs much explaining. Cookies are great and I'd rather eat those cheap supermarket cookies, than having none at all.

Self-made cookies are on the top of the list. Then comes the ones from the bakery, at the bottom are the cheap supermarket ones. But at the end of the day, would you really want to have no cookies at all if you could have supermarket ones instead? I don't think so.

8) If you wear a mid-length or short dress do not sit down on the tube

Just. Do. NOT!

9) When you're on the road, always pack more than you think you need ...

.... because you'll need it. Trust me.

I learnt this the hard way but the mistake never happened to me again. Even if you go on a road trip into the mountains during the summer, pack that damn jacket because mountains can get quite cold. Then you won't have to rely on your friend's jacket - thanks, Barb. Alternatively, you can always keep some essentials in your car. For example, I have an old jacket in the boot, an old-ish nut mix, tampons, sunnies, a charger for the phone, and snow chains.

10) When in doubt ... use an alphabetical order

This may be the small librarian talking but whenever I am not sure how to order anything, I take comfort in the arms of the alphabet. It gives you a perfect order with which nobody can argue.

The next time someone asks you about your top 5 and you don't know how to order them, the alphabet is your friend. Or if you're unsure how to sort the categories of the blog. Again the alphabet is here when you need it.

Those are my 10 rules to live by. Feel free to share a few of your own, or your whole list. I'd be more than welcome to feature them, and curious enough too.