I met the lovely Rachel Hollis several years ago when the mom of three (!) and her team at Chic Events were catering and straight-up running the Entertainment Weekly suite at the Sundance Film Festival. Since then, we keep up on social media and the LA resident boasts a bevy of cooking, home, lifestyle and fashion and beauty tips she shares on her blog, The Chic.

Best of all, she just penned Party Girl, the story of Landon Brinkley, an LA girl via Texas, with a deep and real appreciation of lashes and big hair, which I’m reading as I live and type and am loving. Buy a signed copy here, and check out Rachel’s 5 Rules For Life, in her words, below.

1. We All Get the Same 24 Hours 

I wrote a post about this recently so it’s been on my mind a lot lately. No matter who you are or where you come from, we all get the same amount of hours to work on our dreams.  The truth about that woman you admire, the one you see jogging down the street every morning or fighting her way through a Master’s program online while holding down a day job and raising kids. That woman, has the same 24 hours that you do, but she’s choosing to spend her hours on her dream… not on the excuses for why she can’t achieve it.

2. Good Manners Will Always Be In Style

I was raised in a southern home and manners and etiquette were drilled into us from the cradle. I abhor bad manners no matter who you are. I still say yes ma’am or no sir even if I’m speaking with the barista at Starbucks. I wave if you let me into traffic, I send handwritten thank you notes, and I will always give up my seat for anyone older than I am. Manners are a sign of respect and they go a long way out there in the world so make sure you have nice ones.

3. Buy Quality, Not Quantity

I grew up without money and the second I got any I became a Baller… at Target. I was so excited to be able to afford anything that I got a full wardrobe from Target, Forever 21 and the like. What I came away with was a closet full of clothes that couldn’t survive the season because they faded or shrank or fell apart. Slowly I started to save up for high quality pieces like a great blazer or the perfect pair of jeans. They’re more expensive but they last for years and never go out of style… Buy quality!

4. Marry Your Best Friend 

It seems cheesy I know, but if you want to know the key to my life’s happiness it’s that I married my best friend. Truly. We’ve been together for 12 years and we still laugh our faces off every single day. There’s no one I’d rather talk to or hang out with, and I fall more in love with him with each passing year. The initial drunken love of a new couple does fade away, but when you’re with your best friend it grows into something so much greater.

5. Eat Healthy but Have a Vice

My actual true size is at least 15 pounds heavier than I am at any given moment. The inner me wants to eat Mexican food for every meal and binge on the snack cake aisle at 7/11. Alas, I have to work pretty hard to stay diligent on my diet but I can’t go too hardcore or I’ll freak out and blow the whole thing. I’m allowed a vice and my vice is wine. I know it’s got empty calories by the boatload but I figure if I eat healthy all day long I’m allowed to have my wine at night and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

Thanks, Rachel! Stay tuned for more 5 Rules For Life installments.

“Five Rules For Life” is a series on Rouge18 in which I ask others to share their five rules for life about anything and everything. You can learn a lot about a person by reading which five things govern their actions, no?