Many of the rules we live by — the ones we think we must follow — aren’t real.
In this episode of Morning Motivation, I explore how the most successful people often rise by questioning what’s actually required… and why most of us are still obeying invisible rules we made up ourselves. You don’t need to burn it all down. But you do need to ask: is this a real boundary, or just a comfortable excuse?
🗓️ Morning Motivation is a daily podcast to help you challenge limits, question assumptions, and take bold, aligned action — one perspective shift at a time.
Transcript
Many of the rules around us are actually made up, some of them by ourselves. If you look at some of these very successful people in business and politics, people have risen to the top, oftentimes the stories are about them breaking the rules and their stories are often about going too far. You see, the reason why we so often see these groundbreaking CEOs and founders getting in trouble by abusing their employees or cheating or stealing or whatever it is, it's because they have the trait that they believe the rules don't apply to them. And this can be powerful because they can break through regulations that they realize won't be enforced, they can break through norms that they realize are holding us back, but they also don't know when to stop. The lesson for us, however, is that the rules are often made up. The rules often are not real or are not as real as you think. And many of us make up rules that don't even exist and hold ourselves back. The difference between most of us and these groundbreaking leaders is that most of us are very afraid to break any rule. And these leaders are pushing the edge and they say, what if I break this? What happens? Oh, that wasn't too bad. What if I break this? What if I break this? Don't go too far, but don't take it as a cautionary tale because you are most likely so far away from the rule breaking line that you're nowhere near tipping into hubris. In fact, most of us statistically, if you're listening to this, you are probably the kind of person who's made up rules that don't even exist, exist only in your own mind. Have you invented rules that you use to stop yourself? Maybe you think you're obligated to do something for family members or employees or coworkers. Maybe you think there's things you're not allowed to do, things you're not allowed to say, things you're not allowed to call out. And if you do those things, what happens? You don't know. You've never tried it. There's all kinds of rules that I've discovered aren't rules. One of the rules I discovered in the coaching industry, we're not supposed to talk about the problems in the coaching industry. We're not supposed to call people out who are not delivering value and are taking money. Guess what happened when I broke that rule? Sure, I have said a couple people. People I wanted to upset. But I also got a lot of fans, a lot of people saying, I'm so glad you said that. People needed to say that. Most of the rules that hold us back, we're making up. Don't stop yourself with rules that don't even exist.