Customer Reviews

If Life Is a Game, These are the Rules

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For all of you fans of the book, "Chicken Soup for the Soul", there is a new book out there that unveils the ten greatest rules about living life as a human being. In fact, the forward is written by Jack Canfield ( of 'Chicken Soup' fame) and has an interesting story. You see, the first version of Chicken Soup had a list called "The Ten Rules for Being Human" signed by 'anonymous'. Turns out, Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott was the author of those Ten Rules and, with a little encouragement, she's put together this fabulous little book to help us reprogram the gray matter in our skulls.

The book is laid out in an extremely easy to read format and divided into Ten Chapters, or Rules, if you will. In these 133 pages, are such eye opening revelations, such as: Chapter # 3 There Are No Mistakes Only Lessons and Chapter # 4 A Lesson is Repeated Until Learned. These two chapters alone are worth the price of admission! Time and again, you may have witnessed a friend, or even yourself repeating a situation in life, over and over. Whether it's always going out with the same type of people, trusting the wrong people, or simply making the most difficult choices, these are symptoms of not understanding that life will always present you with the same type of situations, until you have learned to master them. It's not bad luck, but probably unwise decision making that gives us the same outcome. Until a person makes a 'conscious' decision to adjust their cycle of thinking, and break out of the pattern, life will always seem to dole out the same rewards.

Another great chapter is #9: "All Your Answers Lie Inside of You". Sometimes we know what's best for us and we still decide to go against it. What you need, what you seek and who you are is embedded within you. This book is not about games, it's about living life to the fullest and achieving the next level of consciousness. An excellent gift for the soul searcher!

In the bestseller CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, there was a
passage entitled "The Rules for Being Human" . . . it was originally
attributed to "Anonymous," but the author (Cherie Carter-Scott)
eventually came forward and wrote a follow-up book: IF LIFE IS
A GAME, THESE ARE THE RULES.

In this latter effort, Carter-Scott makes the rules come alive by
relating them to stories drawn from her own encounters, along
with examples from her family, close friends and workshop
participants . . . you almost feel as if she is talking with you
personally.

I found this short book to be most thought-provoking and
one that I will want to revisit--often.

There were several memorable passages . . . however, methinks
that you'll most enjoy just thinking about the various rules
that follow:

Rule One:
You will receive a body.
You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration
of your life on Earth.

Rule Two:
You will be presented with lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life."
Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to
learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but
you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Rule Three:
There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors,
and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a
part of the process as the experiments that work.

Rule Four:
A lesson is repeated until learned.
Lessons will repeated to you in various forms until you have
learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on
to the next lesson.

Rule Five:
Learning does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are
alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six:
"There" is no better than "here."
When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain
a "there" that will look better to you than your present "here."

Rule Seven:
Others are only mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless
it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

Rule Eight:
What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with
them is up to you.

Rule Nine:
Your answers lie inside of you.
All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

Rule Ten:
You will forget all of this at birth.
You can remember it if you want by unraveling the double helix
of inner knowing.

In addition, I liked the inspirational quotes that were utilized
to help drive home some of the author's many points . . . among them:

No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent.--Eleanor Roosevelt

Life doesn't require that we be the best-only that we try
our best.--H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to
succeed is always to try just one more time.--Thomas Edison

I had previously read Carter-Scott's excellent IF SUCCESS IS A GAME,
THESE ARE THE RULES . . . you can now count me as a fan
of her work, so that means I'll be looking forward to her next
effort--and will now go back and find some of her previous works.

I loved this book. It is filled with practical, common-sense guidelines for getting through life. Instead of just reading this book, try to apply it and see the difference it can make in your life. I especially liked that it is a well-written, easy-to-understand text book for being human that one can read in just a few hours. Thank you Dr. Carter-Scott for bringing us all back to the simple basics!

a dear friend has sent this book out of the blue. i believe this is a `divine intervention' for me to take responsibility of my life and to tighten the loose ends in my life. i am heavily into spritual and self development for several years already. authors such as m scott peck, vincent norman peale, marianne williamson, harold krushner etc have all played an important role in my quest of self development. when your book arrived in my mailbox, i discovered that it is grace telling me that it is time to move on to the next level. after all these things floating in my mind and life, i realised that i have never claimed authorship of it as you have stated in one of the 10 rules. initially it is difficult to claim responsibility and accountability 100%, however, i realised that if i don't do that, time might be running out for me. although i am in my 30's, i realise that there is no guarantee of shelf life for a human being. however, unlike goods, a human being knows nothing about his/her own expiry date. in short, the most important lesson from your book is that: claim ownership to my life and develop the plot, colour it, do my best to give life to it and let be the grand producer to its outcome.

When I picked up this book last week at the airport, it was out of morbid curiosity. Due to the fact that my perception of most "motivational speakers" is of being opportunistic people who make their living from people in need. However after I started reading this book I could not put it down, since then I have read it twice. The reason I got OnLine today was to order hard-cover copies to give away. I wish I have read something like this back in Junior-high. I've always said that in our school systems we lack a mandatory class for teaching people how to be civilized human beings. I now believe this book would be wonderful text material for such a class. From now on I am adding this book to the series of books I give to the troubled teenagers I mentor. I strongly believe that if these rules and the other information contained in this book is taught to our children, things like what happened last week at that high school in Colorado might never happen.

This book is a little gem.... Cherie Carter-Scott writes in a way which is simple, concise, enlightening and inspirational.

If you struggle with the pressures of everyday life or you are constantly asking 'why me?' you will find something in this book that will help you realign yourself. If you are open-minded towards the simple truths that the author explains, and you lose any preconceived ideas you might have beforehand, you will definitely gain something from reading 'The Ten Rules for Being Human'.

If you are anything like me then once you have read this book, you will find yourself refreshed and wanting to pass it on to others so that they can benefit from its simple wisdom.

I first listened to this on audio tape and was so impressed by the principles put forth that I purchased the hardcover copy to read. I found this to be one of those books that helps us put things in perspective while providing tangible ways to improve our lives. The best thing I can ever say about a book is that I keep it in my personal library and go back to it over and over. I do that with both the audio and hard copy versions of this work. Thank you Cherie Carter-Scott!

Yes the Koran, the Bible or the Tora might make you a better person for the next world, but if you read, understand and follow the rules of this book, you will be a better person in this world.

First of all, I loved "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and most of Jack Canfield's books. While I agree in principle with the message the book delivers, I found the presentation style to be extremely elementary and so much "matter of fact common sense" that it became slightly irritating to read after awhile. There was absolutely nothing thought-provoking or enlightening to be found.

Based on the rules of acceptance, self-esteem, respect and pleasure, the author attempts to present a primer on what it is like to be human, and hopefully, we all have at least the basics in that department. If not, we need more than this little book! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the content or the concepts; it was solely the writing and presentation style which left much to be desired. If the book is intended to be a "primer," the author has certainly fulfilled the mission!

This is a great book. Is there anything new here? Not really however the presentation made good sense and the practicality of the advice was relevant to my own life and it might be for yours also.