I looooove challenging “the rules.” Even from a young age I was the kid who asked and even more often pondered, “But why?”

Typical answer, “Because.”

“Yeah, but why because?” I suspect I drove some adults cross-eyed.

Fortunately for my parents and teachers, when I was a kid I actually obeyed even if I didn’t see the logic or agree. Now? Not so much.

All along the journey from childhood through adulthood we accept an awful lot of unspoken “rules” and assumptions without challenging whether or not they work for us or are even grounded in reality. I love the story of the young woman who asked her mom why when she was growing up had her mother always cut the Sunday roast in half before cooking it? The mother didn’t really know, her own mother has just always done it that way.

When the daughter asked her grandmother, she said, “Well, for many years I didn’t have a pan big enough for a whole roast so I always cut it in half and cooked it in two.”

Moral of the story? Ask the questions, challenge the assumptions!

There is no better time of year than RIGHT NOW to examine your beliefs, ask who made the “rules” you have never even questioned, and start demanding, “Because why?!” And if you don’t like the answer, let it go and make yourself some new rules.

Liz Gaige
Market Navigators Consulting

Tags: breaking the rules, Liz Gaige, Market Navigators, rules in business

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 12:46 am and is filed under Liz Gaige - Marketing, Marketing, New Year, New Rules. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.