Are you part of the “special rules” club? I know that, at one time, I was a card carrying member. Here’s one of the things I learned: I’m not exempt.

There are hard and fast rules that apply to all of us for our entire lifetime, but a part of our conditioning is that they don’t apply to us. When we believe that, we suffer.

For example, if you eat more calories than you can metabolize, the excess will find its way to fatten you up. There is no special exemption. That’s a fact. There are many ways to make sure that excess fat doesn’t happen and they all take work, work that many of us are unwilling to do because we delude ourselves that the rules don’t apply to us.

Whatever behavior you want to outgrow takes some work. You cannot wish it or pray it away or think that you are entitled to a special dispensation. It doesn’t matter how “special” you or someone else has convinced you that you are, the rules apply to you too.

I have a people helping friend who is miserable. He offers all the appropriate advice to the people he’s helping but doesn’t believe those things apply to him; therefore he suffers.

My hypnosis mentor Dr. Dave Dobson described people looking for an exemption as “jumping from one hot tub to another.” It was a reference to looking for the latest “cure.” The cure in this case was a way around the rules.

The real shortcut is to recognize that most shortcuts are diversions – diversions away from the doing what’s necessary.

If you want your cake to taste just like the the one you bought at the bakery,you have to follow the recipe. If you don’t think you have to add that much sugar or flour or that you’ll use a substitute, your cake will never taste like theirs.

“It doesn’t apply to me” is a prescription for suffering, no matter how dressed up your exemption appears to be.

All the best,

John