I’ve recently seen these “rules” pasted into images and appearing in my feeds almost on the daily. They are usually accompanied by a message stating that these rules came from some recently unearthed ancient Sumerian tablets, or found as hieroglyphs within the pyramids, or on some Dead Sea scroll.

Nonsense.

These rules have been floating about for decades and every few years, they seem to gain new life and vigor and get floated around again. It’s no wonder – they do speak of great wisdom. But they did not come to us from across time and space from some obscure and ancient text that was only recently unveiled. No, they came from the mind and wisdom of Chérie Carter-Scott PhD, the author of If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules: Ten Rules for Being Human as Introduced in Chicken Soup for the Soul.

The Rules For Being Human
by Chérie Carter-Scott, Ph.D.

1. You will receive a body.
2. You will learn lessons.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
5. Learning lessons does not end.
6. “There” is no better than “here”.
7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
8. What you create of your life is up to you.
9. Your answers lie inside you.
10. You will tend to forget all of this.

The list didn’t originally come from her book but had been copied and pasted for years prior due to her career as a motivational coach. This was a list she had handed out to many who kept it. They rewrote it, printed it, copied it, framed it, and circulated it for years. And for many years, it went without attrition, fading into authorless wisdom. And it was eventually picked up and printed with anonymous attrition in an incredibly popular book: Chicken Soup for the Soul.

When the particular contributor who added the list to the book, Jack Canfield, realized who the actual author was, he apologized to Dr. Carter-Scott and then penned a forward in her book referenced above. He explained that he had been unable to find the author when he added the list and how he was not at all surprised that this list came from her as they ran in similar circles and he was well-versed in her work.

And now you know where it came from!