In "New Slant on Life", a book written by L. Ron Hubbard, we find the following:

"Two rules for happy living:

"1. Be able to experience anything.

"2. Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily."

I would first like to discuss rule #2: "Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily."

How well do you apply this to your spouse? To your boyfriend; girlfriend? To your boss; your employees?

How often do you cause something that another does NOT experience easily? And when that does happen, what kind of other effects are you left with? You usually have upsets, some of which may linger for some time.

Step back and reflect for a few seconds. If you saw completely eye to eye with "cause only those things which others are able to experience easily", you could virtually eliminate all upsets from your life.

If your marriage were free from upsets, what kind of an effect would this have?

Some people think that upsets are a "fact of life" and that every marriage has them. Well, so far that's very true. They indeed are a fact of life. But you could go very far in reducing the number of upsets by applying just one principle: "cause only those things which others are able to experience easily."

Next time you find yourself in a situation where your next action or your next communication is NOT going to be experienced easily, CHANGE the action, CHANGE the communication to something that CAN be experienced easily.

This principle may sound very, very simple. And indeed it is. But it is also very powerful.

Which brings us to rule #1: "Be able to experience anything."

This principle doesn't really leave much for interpretation, does it? Anything means anything! So whatever comes your way, be able to experience it.

If your wife comes up to you and tells you she just overdrew the checking account, BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE that.

In this one example, we have the wife causing something that the husband might not experience very easily. But instead of the husband going into a major tirade, he decides that he is ABLE TO EXPERIENCE it. This situation has definite potential for causing an upset, an upset that might affect the overall condition of the marriage. But one person stepped up and applied one of the two rules for happy living.

Now, if BOTH partners were working earnestly on applying BOTH rules for happy living, we would indeed have a much happier marriage.

Use these two rules to the best of your ability. You will find every one of your relationships improving daily!


The material in this article is based on information found in “When the Thrill is Gone: How to put the Life and Excitement Back into ANY Relationship,” by Stan Dubin. This book contains new and innovative tools to help you run a successful marriage. For more information on this book, go to http://www.MarriageSuccess.com. Copyright (c) 2001 Workable Solutions. All Rights Reserved. Quoted material by L. Ron Hubbard: (c) 1965 L. Ron Hubbard Library. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.