The Rules Of Life
The Rules of Life: A Personal Code for Living a Better, Happier, More Successful Life
Richard Templar
Most people want a better life.
Fewer are willing to live by a standard that actually produces one.
That’s where The Rules of Life stands out. Richard Templar doesn’t offer a grand philosophy or a complicated system. He offers something simpler—and harder to ignore.
Rules.
Not rigid laws. Not moral lectures. Practical, lived principles for how to think, act, and carry yourself through the world.
And if you read closely, you’ll notice something.
The rules aren’t complicated.
Living them is.
This Is a Book About Personal Standards
Templar’s central idea is straightforward:
Your life improves when your standards improve.
Not your intentions. Not your goals. Your standards.
I’ve seen this play out over and over. People talk about what they want—better relationships, better business results, more balance. But when you look at how they actually operate day to day, the standards don’t match the ambition.
That gap is the problem.
Templar closes that gap with rules that are clear, practical, and hard to argue with.
Things like taking responsibility, being honest, managing your emotions, and treating people well.
Simple.
Not easy.
Responsibility Is the Starting Point
One of the strongest threads in the book is personal responsibility.
No excuses. No blame. No outsourcing.
If something isn’t working, you own it.
That doesn’t mean everything is your fault. It means everything is your responsibility to respond to.
There’s a difference.
And once you accept that, your thinking changes. Your behavior changes. Your results start to change.
Because now you’re in the driver’s seat.
How You Treat People Matters More Than You Think
Templar puts real weight on relationships.
Not networking. Not transactions. Relationships.
He emphasizes kindness, respect, listening, and fairness—not as soft skills, but as life skills.
Because people remember how you treat them.
I’ve watched leaders underestimate this. They focus on strategy, execution, and numbers. All important. But they forget that people carry the experience of working with you long after the meeting ends.
That experience becomes your reputation.
So the question is simple: what are people experiencing when they deal with you?
Emotional Control Is a Competitive Advantage
Another rule that shows up clearly:
Manage your emotions.
Do not suppress them. Manage them.
Templar is practical here. He understands that frustration, anger, and stress—they’re part of life. But acting on them without control creates damage.
In business. In relationships. In judgment.
The leaders and individuals who stand out are not the ones who never feel pressure.
They’re the ones who stay steady under it.
That’s a skill.
And like any skill, it can be built.
Honesty—With Yourself First
There’s a quiet but powerful emphasis on honesty in this book.
Not just with others. With yourself.
This is where things get uncomfortable.
Because it’s easy to justify behavior. Easy to explain away poor decisions. Easy to protect your ego.
Harder to look clearly and say, “That’s on me.”
But that’s where growth starts.
If you can’t tell yourself the truth, you won’t fix what needs fixing.
Perspective Changes Everything
Templar also touches on perspective in a way that’s easy to miss if you’re reading quickly.
How you see things shapes how you respond.
Two people can face the same situation and walk away with completely different outcomes because they interpret it differently.
That’s not theory.
That’s daily life.
So when something goes wrong, the question is not just “what happened?”
It’s “how am I choosing to see this?”
That choice matters more than most people realize.
Discipline Over Time
This is not a book about quick wins.
It’s about consistency.
Small rules. Lived daily. Over time.
That’s how change happens.
Not in dramatic shifts. In repeated behavior.
Templar’s rules work because they compound.
One better decision. Then another. Then another.
That’s how you build a better life.
What This Book Is Really Saying
Strip everything down, and the message is clear:
Live by a code.
Not when it’s convenient. All the time.
Because your life is the sum of your habits, your decisions, and your standards.
And those are all within your control.
Practical Takeaways
If I were pulling this into real-world use, I’d keep it tight:
Take responsibility for your outcomes
Treat people with consistent respect
Control your emotional responses
Tell yourself the truth
Choose your perspective carefully
Build discipline through daily behavior
Nothing here is complicated.
But it will separate you.
Reflection Questions
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Where are you blaming instead of taking responsibility?
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How do people actually experience you day to day?
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What situations cause you to lose emotional control?
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Where are you not being fully honest with yourself?
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How are you interpreting your current challenges?
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What standard are you tolerating that needs to change?
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If you lived these rules consistently, what would improve first?
Sit with those.
They’ll tell you where to focus.
Final Thought
A better life is not built on big moments.
It’s built on small decisions, made consistently, over time.
Templar gives you the rules.
The real question is:
Will you live by them?
About the Author
Richard Templar is a British author known for writing practical, no-nonsense guides on life and work, including The Rules of Life, The Rules of Work, and The Rules of Management. His strength is clarity. He takes complex ideas about behavior and reduces them to simple, usable principles that people can apply immediately.
