So I was watching this episode of How I Met Your Mother the other day… granted I was not in the best mood, and watching sitcoms while you’re hurt, sad, angry or depressed, well, kind of takes away the enjoyment of it all. I still watched it anyways… hell I needed the distraction.

This episode in particular talks about something that was made up, yet for me at the moment made a lot of sense… still does actually.

This character Ted wants to date his regular doctor, and gets disapproved by his friends. The explanation?? The Platinum Rule. Although taken on purpose out of context, one of his friends (Barney) mentions the Golden Rule, which is commonly known as “Do onto to others as they would do onto you.”. Barney’s take on it is “Love thy neighbor,” which would lead into his Platinum Rule as “Never ever, ever, ever ‘love’ thy neighbor.”

His point came to be that you should never date someone seen on a regular basis like co-workers, neighbors, group friends (Now he tells me), etc. So he says that relationships like that are doomed to fail and lead to never-ending suffering as they see each other almost every day.

Barney begins to point out the 8 steps of the Platinum Rule, which based on past experiences (on both sides of the equation), I’ve seen it happen. Like I said, It’s weird but it makes sense to me.

Step 1: Attraction - The ignition of desire
Step 2: Bargaining - Weighing the possibilities with close friends
Step 3: Submission - Jumping in
Step 4: Perks - Relishing in the “benefits” of the relationship
Step 5: The Tipping Point - Where it starts to go downhill
Step 6: Purgatory - The culmination of annoyances
Step 7: Confrontation - Ending the relationship
Step 8: Fallout - The unavoidable backlash

The important thing for me wasn’t that. It was that at the end of the episode, Ted keeps wondering (narrating) that maybe there should be a 9th step… Coexistence. And the way he said it made me realize there is some truthful value to it.

“So that was the end of the story between me and Stella, at least for the time being. But I don’t know, looking back at the Platinum Rule, I think there’s a 9th step, we’ll call it Coexistence. It’s the moment you realize that all that anger and resentment just isn’t useful. When you start to let go of it, and move on with your life… it just takes a while“

Who could’ve thought you could learn something from a sitcom? I just hope I can reach that 9th step soon.