The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
Do you have rules or values that you live by? I didn’t realize I had my own rules of living and managing my career until I read Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage.
While I read through this book, I kept listing ideas that I’ve used as a compass over the course of my life. Some were inspired my father, mother, grandmother, friend, and favorite movies or TV shows. Unfortunately, most were developed after I encountered difficult times or challenging issues.
After completing my list, I decided to call them Smart Lemming rules, rather than principles or values, because as one of my closest friends likes to say, “Lori has a lot of rules.” And I do. I have twenty-one to be exact.
I’ll be blogging about each rule in the days to come. If you have your own rules or values that you’d like to share, please leave a comment, so we all can learn from your lessons learned.
Do you need to follow my rules? No. But I guarantee, my rules will keep you out of trouble.
Level 1
- Find your own spirituality and practice it.
- Know what you want or the Universe (or God) won’t know what to send you: If you don’t know what you want, how can you get to where you want to be?
- Fate or free will? Regardless of what you believe, we all have a purpose to being here. The tricky part is discovering what it is.
- Don’t wait for your future to happen to you, you have to be vigilant in making your future happen.
- Understand your dark side, but don’t give into it or indulge it.
- Aspire to always help and teach others.
Level 2
- Watch or read this media when you need inspiration. Reflect on why you like a certain movie or TV show, so you understand why it moves you.
- Always be learning. Continue learning through books or any source that gives you new ideas on how to approach your work or feeds your passion.
- Be self-aware. If you aren’t, then how will you know you’re screwing up?
- Accept responsibility and make peace with your decisions and the consequences of those decisions. They have created the person you are today. The trick is, do you like what you’ve created? If not, then how can you change?
- Keep a lid on chaos. Never let situations or emotions get away from you. Be the calm in the eye of the storm as strength, reflecting confidence for the most vulnerable people in your life.
Level 3
- Stay still and don’t move if you feel lost, so you can find yourself or let the opportunity find you.
- Always be course correcting.
- Surround yourself with trusted and loyal friends. Be prepared to deal with betrayal without ambivalence. But be prepare to forgive (if the person is sincere, I mean really sincere).
- Learn to channel your inner extrovert, if you’re an introvert. Learn to channel your inner introvert, if you’re an extrovert.
Level 4
- Make peace with your weaknesses. We’re not perfect. Even your strengths will turn into weaknesses. The trick is knowing when your strength has become a weakness.
- Master your emotions and body language. Use them strategically in life and work.
- Mentor yourself via the Space Time Continuum. What would your future self tell your present self? How can you get back on track? What have you done well? What more can you do? What would you tell yourself as a child, teen, 20 or 30 something?
Level 5
- Never take your success for granted. Always prepare for the worst case scenarios. Be prepared for two steps forward and one step back.
- Be humble. Treat others well, don’t be arrogant, and don’t drink your own Kool-Aid.
Level 6
- Be compassionate.
Have I left anything out?
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The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management series outlines my rules of personal and work success. After reflecting on my personal values, I made this list, realizing values are my rules of being or life management principles. Based on your experiences, I hope this list inspires you to identify your own rules. Here are the rules to my success that may help you over the course of your journey:
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: Overview of the Pyramid and Its Levels
Level 1: Rules for Our Fundamental Nature
- #1 Find your own spirituality and practice it.
- #2 Know what you want or the Universe (or God) won’t know what to send you: If you don’t know what you want, how can you get to where you want to be?
- #3 Fate or free will? Regardless of what you believe, we all have a purpose to being here. The tricky part is discovering what it is.
- #4 Don’t wait for your future to happen to you, you have to be vigilant in making your future happen.
- #5 Understand your dark side, but don’t give into it or indulge it.
- #6 Aspire to always help and teach others.
Level 2: Rules of Continuous Learning and Modeling
- #7 Watch or read media sources when you need inspiration. Reflect on why you like a certain movie or TV show, so you understand why it moves you.
- #8 Always be learning. Continue learning through books or any source that gives you new ideas on how to approach your work or feeds your passion.
- #9 Become self aware. If you aren’t, then how will you know you’re screwing up?
- #10 Accept responsibility and make peace with your decisions and the consequences of those decisions. They have created the person you are today. The trick is, do you like what you’ve created? If not, then how can you change?
- #11 Keep a lid on chaos. Never let situations or emotions get away from you. Be the calm in the eye of the storm as strength, reflecting confidence for the most vulnerable people in your life.
Level 3: Rules for the Actual Journey
- #12 Stay still and don’t move if you feel lost, so you can find yourself or let the opportunity find you.
- #13 Always be course correcting.
- #14 Surround yourself with trusted and loyal friends. Be prepared to deal with betrayal without ambivalence. But be prepare to forgive (if the person is sincere, I mean really sincere).
- #15 Learn to channel your inner extrovert, if you’re an introvert. Learn to channel your inner introvert, if you’re an extrovert.
Level 4: Rules of Adapting to Environment and Interacting with Others
- #16 Make peace with your weaknesses. We’re not perfect. Even your strengths will turn into weaknesses. The trick is knowing when your strength has become a weakness.
- #17 Master your emotions and body language. Use them strategically in life and work.
- #18 Mentor yourself via the Space Time Continuum. What would your future self tell your present self? How can you get back on track? What have you done well? What more can you do? What would you tell yourself as a child, teen, 20 or 30 something?
Level 5: Rules of Humility
- #19 Never take your success for granted. Always prepare for the worst case scenarios. Be prepared for two steps forward and one step back.
- #20 Be humble. Treat others well, don’t be arrogant, and don’t drink your own Kool-Aid.
Level 6: Rule of Being
- #21 Be compassionate.
Similar Posts:
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #10 Accept Responsibility for Your Decisions
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #4 Be Vigilant in Making your Future Happen
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: Overview of the Pyramid and Its Levels
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #9 Become Self Aware
- The Smart Lemming Rules of Life and Career Management: #6 Aspire to always help and teach others
Wow you really like Star Trek! As for me? I don’t do well on the keeping chaos at bay. My family has a flare for the dramatic, so I can sucked up into that vortex. I find myself reacting rather than just let it pass over me. Looking forward to you posts. Great post, I feel like I understand how you tick.
I will be looking forward to your blog about each rule. I find this really interesting. I have my own rules too -not so many lol- but I never thought of writing them down. Maybe I should do it.
Just one question: what criteria do you use to …organize the rules in the pyramid? What´s the meaning of every level?
Yes, I really love Star Trek for many reasons. First, entertainment value because its Sci-Fi. Second, because of the command structure, its interesting from a management and leadership perspective. Lastly, Star Trek also introduces me to general concepts that I tend to apply in other ways like the Space Time Continuum. Don’t get me started on parallel universes!
The pyramid? Well, I’ll include in another the second post in the series, but generally it means each layer is built on the preceding layer.
I tend to think in frameworks and paradigm like Venn diagrams, pyramids, and other ways that help me processes my thoughts. After I wrote the rules down in my note cards, I moved them around to see a pattern, and then realized that my rules fell into these six layers.
Layer 1 is the fundamental layer that must be done in my mind, while level 6 often takes years to incorporate and master.
Thanks for commenting! Please let me know if you have any other questions and additions. This was so helpful.