There is a film that I try to watch once a year at least. That film is called Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

The film was released in 2011 follows an 85-year-old sushi master and owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a Michelin three-star restaurant. All this man did or wanted to do in his life was to make sushi. Eventually, this led to the three Michelin stars. Ironically in November 2019, these Michelin stars were taken away from his restaurant because they seem to be overbooked and stopped taking reservations. Here’s exactly what they said on their website:

“Unfortunately, as our restaurant can only seat up to 10 guests at a time, this situation is likely continued. Please note that we will not be able to accept telephone reservations until further notice.”

Due to their success, they have to stop taking reservations and are unable to be open to the public. This caused Michelin to drop them for their recommendations. Which makes sense to some degree. If you can’t eat there, then they shouldn’t recommend people visit.

Jiro did not begin making sushi to earn Michelin stars. Their rules do not apply to the way that he does anything. Removing the stars because your rules prevent him from qualifying makes sense but does not define Jiro.

I am certain that Jiro is not going to open a larger restaurant or change the way he does things. He created his own set of rules and stood by them, adapted them and refined them to become the best in the world. The most talented and successful people in the world understand the rules of the world and then create their own set of rules to live by.

This got me thinking about rules and the arbitrary nature of them.

As we step into a new year and new decade, I want to highlight the flimsy nature of rules. Every day we are guided by a set of rules, our own rules, the government’s rules, our parent’s rules, school rules, unspoken rules, family rules, business rules and always more rules.

There are rules everywhere.

These rules were created by people.

The rule-makers are the rulebreakers of the past.

The rule-makers become “The Man” over time.

The rules are the roadblocks that force the unexpected trips.

The rules are the constraints that force creative thinking.

The rules force some of us to think outside of the rules.

For the most part, though, the rule-makers are the ones with the control over the masses.

This year I’m going to spend my time thinking about the rules that I choose to live by. The ones that I agree with should stay in place and the ones that are holding me back should be broken forever.

The rules I’m talking about are the ones that prevent you from quitting the job that makes you unhappy, or the rules that we follow without thinking — the ones that have become habit. The ones that make you angry, critical, mean, unhappy, depressed or worst version of yourself.

There is no reason to live by rules that drag you down.

Remember that rules in this life are created by other people, just like you. These people just arrived a bit before you did.

We thought that gravity would bind us to Earth forever and then someone decided to travel into space. You can decide to change the rules if we can defy gravity.

There is no single rule that can define you and if there is one that is preventing you from leveling up, then reframe that rule as someone else’s method to keep you down and do something different today.