1.11.09.  In the Good Rules Way, what does "when" mean?

In the Good Rules Way™, the Good Rules Theorem™ states: "when you use good rules, you meet your goals". "When" means any time, any place, any situation -- any when.

"When" means any time: now, later, in your lifetime, this year, today, this evening, this hour, this second, this week, next week -- any time. When (it's this evening and) you use good rules, you meet your goals. At any time, when you use good rules, you meet your goals.

"When" means any place: at home, at the office, in the car, over at your friends' house, in your community, in prison, on the road -- any place. When (you're at work and) you use good rules, you meet your goals. In any place, when you use good rules, you meet your goals.

"When" means any situation: when you're on vacation, during a flood, when you're under the gun, in training, when everything's fine, in an emergency, when you're on the phone, in business -- any situation. When (you're between a rock and a hard place and) you use good rules, you meet your goals. In any situation, when you use good rules, you meet your goals.

In the Good Rules Way, "when" means any time, any place, any situation -- any when.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.12.09.  In the Good Rules Way, what does "meet" your goals mean?

In the Good Rules Way™, "meet" your goals means anything you choose. You choose your goals; so you choose what "your goals" means. You choose to meet them; so you choose what "meet" them means. "Meet" your goals has any meaning you choose -- any meaning.

For example, for any goal, you can choose that "meet" it means: generally or specifically, in spirit or in detail, roughly or exactly, in principal or in practice, metaphorically or literally, at some time or place or manner, or at a very particular time and place and manner.

Say your goal is "experience a moment of conscious enlightenment". You can choose that "meet" it means: sometime, somewhere, in some way, about something. Or you can choose that "meet" it means: next Thursday at 10:00 p.m., at your home, in a long term practical way, about whether to accept that job offer. "Meet" that goal has any meaning you choose.

Ordinary language floods you with too many words for "meet" your goals: achieve, accomplish, attain, carry out, complete, conclude, discharge, deliver, do, execute, finish, fulfill, meet, obtain, perform, reach, realize, satisfy, secure, succeed in, etc. One word is simpler; one word is better. The Good Rules Way simplifies; it uses one word: "meet". You choose what "meet" means.

In the Good Rules Way, "meet" your goals has any meaning you choose -- any meaning.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.13.09.  The Good Rules Way in action: your daily rule book.

Each day, I write a rule book. I enact my goals, and good rules to meet each of my goals: fitness, nutrition, sleep, news, client development, client products and services, professional events, good rules research, volunteer organization work, family, harmonica practice, drawing, recreation, whatever -- even goodrulesblog publication! My daily rule books exemplify four virtues of the elegant and powerful mathematics, science, and art that inspires them. Each rule book is:

1. Simple: It's one page and pen marks. That's it.

2. Consistent: Tuesday's rule book has the same size, shape, structure, and format as Monday's. Tuesday's goals are in the same place as Monday's. They're mostly the same goals. Tuesday's unique goals are where Monday's unique goals were. Familiar tools reassure people.

3. Complete: It pictures every hour (24) and every minute (1,440). It lists all my goals and rules, including appointments and times. I can record every hour I've used, and every minute I've used, to meet every goal I've met, by every rule I've used. Small achievements motivate big ones.

4. Efficient: It performs: it enacts, instructs, and ignites all my rules and it pictures all my goals, rules, and achievements. It's fast: I use less than 1% of my day to create it. It's small: one sixteenth of a letter size sheet of paper. It's safe: I get an idea, I record it, I have it forever. It's flexible: it fits in my pocket, in my wallet, down my sock, up my sleeve -- or behind my ear. 

Your daily rule book: simple, consistent, complete, efficient. It's the Good Rules Way™ in action.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.14.09.  The Good Rules Way: Leadership. It may inspire you!

Organizations value leadership. But what is leadership about? Some people say: "leadership is about getting others to do things" or "leadership is about getting others to follow you". That's intuition or common sense. But the Good Rules Way™ insists on mathematics: rigorous proof, certainty, theorems, deduction, simplicity, consistency, completeness, efficiency. So what does the Good Rules Way say about leadership? It may surprise you. It may inspire you!

Assume the Good Rules Theorem:

When you use good rules, you meet your goals.

Deduce the Good Leadership Rules Theorem:

When you use good leadership rules, you meet your leadership goals.

Deduce Good Leadership Rules ("use" means: enact, instruct, ignite, achieve):
1. Enact good leadership rules (you enact these rules for you to achieve).

2. Instruct good leadership rules (you instruct yourself to achieve these rules).

3. Ignite good leadership rules (you ignite yourself to achieve these rules).

4. Achieve good leadership rules (you achieve these rules yourself).

1. Enact good leadership rules (for example, in your "Good Leadership Rule Book"):

To "enact" can mean: write, think, speak, draw a picture, visualize, imagine, rehearse.

A "rule book" is a set of rules -- any set -- one rule, or four rules, or four hundred rules.

In the Good Rules Way, when you use good leadership rules, you meet your leadership goals.

In the Good Rules Way, when you do leadership, leadership is about what you do.

Be inspired!

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.15.09.  The Good Rules Way: Enacting Your Leadership Rule Book.

Say you're inspired to write your Leadership Rule Book. What should you do?

First, choose your leadership goal. A goal is a verb-first sentence. You can choose anything: Lead a meeting. Lead friends to resolve a conflict. Lead a team to victory. Lead colleagues to write a strategic plan. Say you choose: Lead ten kids on a fun and educational forest hike.

Next, choose good rules to meet your goal. With leadership goals, here's one way: Imagine the roles are reversed; YOU are in the role of those you'll lead. If YOU were a kid, what rules would the leader use to make YOU have a fun and educational forest hike? Maybe: Rule A: ask the kids to view themselves as explorers in a new world. Rule B: tell the kids a cool fact every two minutes. Rule C: pause midway to discuss this new world. Whatever Rules ABC...etc. you choose, enact them in your Leadership Rule Book -- as rules for YOU to achieve.

When you use GOOD "Lead ten kids on a fun and educational forest hike" RULES,

you meet YOUR "Lead ten kids on a fun and educational forest hike" GOALS.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.16.09.  Language rules: semantics, syntax, phonetics.

You use language most all the time, in most anything you do. You speak in it, listen to it, read in it (as now), write in it. You live in language. In other words, pun intended, you live in rules.

Semantics rules instruct you on what words to say. For example, assume you saw Bill, and you want to tell someone about it. Good semantics rules instruct you: say "I" and "saw" and "Bill"; do not say "They" or "Gregory" or "King Tut" saw Bill; do not say I "kicked" or I "painted" or I "ate" Bill; do not say I saw "Anglela" or I saw "hayfields" or I saw "Bigfoot".

Syntax rules instruct you on what words to say first, second, third, etc. Good syntax rules instruct you: say "I saw Bill"; do not say "saw Bill I" or "saw I Bill" or "Bill saw I" or "I Bill saw".

Phonetics rules instruct you on how to say those words. Specifically, phonetics rules instruct you on how to move your body. That means: rules that instruct your tongue shape, rules that instruct your jaw position, rules that instruct your voice pitch and voice volume.

When you listen to someone speaking, you use the same rules -- semantics, syntax, phonetics --roughly in reverse, to think the speaker's experience: "I saw Bill". When you read or write -- even when you think -- you use similar types of rules.

Language presents lots of words, word combinations, and rules for each. When you speak, listen, read, or write, you instantly and simultaneously use thousands of language rules. You live in language. You live in rules. The better you live in rules, the better you live.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.17.09.  Planet Earth rules: it enacts, instructs, ignites, achieves.

Planet Earth has rules for you! Every instant, wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you are, whatever you're doing, the earth is using rules -- on you. The earth is one big fat rule user: enactor, instructor, ignitor, achiever. It uses rules in many forms: heat, light, magnetic and electrical fields, air pressure. You live on Planet Earth. You live on rules.

Earth enacts the rule: "come here" roughly from its center, by the force we call "gravity".

Earth instructs the rule "come here" when its gravity field touches something. The gravity field radiates always, everywhere, at everything, including right now, right here, at you.

Earth ignites the rule "come here" when its gravity field affects something. It affects you always, everywhere, right now, right here. If you're sitting, you may feel the rule "come here" in your derriere. It's pulling you against your seat. If you're standing, you may feel the rule "come here" in your feet. It's pulling you against the floor.

Earth achieves the rule "come here" when it makes something "come here". Imagine your picnic table seat suddenly disappearing. Whoops! Clump. You crash into the ground. That's the earth achieving dramatically, and perhaps entertainingly, the rule "come here". The earth would further achieve "come here", and you'd keep on going there, but the earth uses another rule on you. The earth, through the ground, enacts, instructs, ignites, and achieves: "stop right there".

Planet Earth is one big fat rule user. It enacts, instructs, ignites, and achieves rules in many forms: heat, light, magnetic and electrical fields, air pressure, gravity, the ground, and lots more. You live on Planet Earth. You live on rules. The better you live on rules, the better you live.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.18.09.  Your body rules: it instructs you; it achieves rules all by itself.

Your body has rules for you! Always, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, your body is using rules -- inside you. Sometimes your body instructs you to achieve rules. Sometimes your body achieves rules all by itself. You live as a body. You live as rules.

Your body instructs you to use digestion rules. It instructs: "go to the kitchen", "open the fridge", "pull out that bowl of grapes", "pick off a good one", "put that grape in your mouth". You can use those rules. You can refuse those rules. If you use "put that grape in your mouth", your body instructs "chew it". You can use that rule, too. You can refuse it too -- but you better refuse fast, because your body has already instructed your jaw, tongue, and salivary glands to "chew it". In fact, those glands are already achieving "chew it". On a microscopic level, their saliva is tearing that grape's skin to tiny shreds. 

Your body achieves digestion rules all by itself. Say you achieve the rules "chew" and "swallow" that grape. Your body keeps achieving the rule "digest it" by achieving other rules -- all by itself. It instructs: Esophagus, "undulate that grape to the stomach". Stomach, "corrode the heck out of it and send it to the intestine". Intestine, "secrete more digestive stuff and diffuse the nutrients into the bloodstream". Likewise, esophagus, stomach, and intestine achieve more specific rules -- again, all by themselves. Stomach instructs: "secrete enzyme A", "secrete enzyme B", "mix it all up 'till it's done and send it to intestine". Your  body achieves millions of rules -- digest, breathe, perspire, stay warm, etc. -- all to achieve the Main Body Rule: "LIVE".

Sometimes your body instructs you to achieve rules; Sometimes it achieves rules all by itself. You live as a body. You live as rules. The better you live as rules, the better you live.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com

1.19.09.  Your vision rules: blue sky instructs eyes; eyes instruct you.

On a cloudless day, the sky radiates light onto a well-maintained outdoor football field. The sky makes the field light up. The sky, through light, instructs the field: "light up". 

Walk onto the field, lay on your back, face up, open your eyes. The sky makes your eyes see. The sky, through light, instructs your eyes: "see". The sky instructs, ignites, and achieves, in your eyes, the rule: "see". Your eyes make you see blue. Your eyes, through vision, instruct you: "see blue". Your eyes instruct, ignite, and achieve, in you, the rule: "see blue".

Snap your eyelids shut, and you stop your eyes from achieving in you "see blue". Open your lids, and your eyes again achieve "see blue". They don't achieve "see green" or "see white" -- even if you want them to. If your lids are open, the sky and your eyes together achieve, in you, the rule: "see blue". Grass achieves "see green". Snow achieves "see white".

Your eyes achieve rules. The better your eyes achieve rules in you, the better you see.

© 2009 Rick Favaloro, J.D., The Good Rules Consultant™  rick.rulesatwork@mac.com