A True Rule about life -- from an engineer.

My father often talks about “True Rules.” For example, when I started working after college, he said, “It’s one of the True Rules – if you’re willing to take the blame, people will give you responsibility.” And in my experience that rule has certainly turned out to be true. I love True Rules, and I recently started writing them down whenever I heard them. These aren’t general rules for living, like “Enjoy every day.” They’re more specific and concrete. So I've started the True Rules series -- on video!

This True Rule is from Saul, a friend of mine from the days when we both worked at the Federal Communications Commission (my last job as a lawyer).

If you can't see the video, Saul says, "This True Rule comes from my days as an engineer, where we learned that if something wasn't working one way, you turn it around. So my True Rule is: if it's not working one way, you have to turn it around." Obviously this is as useful on a metaphorical level as on a device level.

Note: one of my happiness-project insights is that novelty and challenge bring happiness. Also frustration and annoyance. Notice that I managed to give the video clip a title for the first time! Ah, so satisfying.

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Terrific new site launched today, by the inimitable Jonathan Fields! Career Renegade is definitely worth your attention. The much-anticipated book is coming out soon, but the site gives lots of preview material. I'm off to read the intriguingly titled Fire Fly Manifesto right now.

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Interested in starting your own Happiness Project? If you’d like to take a look at my personal Resolutions Chart, for inspiration, just email me at grubin, then the “at” sign, then gretchenrubin dot com. No need to write anything more than “Resolutions Chart” in the subject line.