Can you imagine living in a society whose laws changed every other day or week without warning? Your life would resemble the plots of post-apocalyptic movies like “Death Wish” or “The Purge” where every thing has gone haywire.
You would have to develop a hyper awareness that borders on paranoia, as you tried to navigate simple tasks such as going to the store to shop or going outside to mow your front lawn for the sake of self preservation.
No person who values their life, and little things like…umm…SANITY would want to live this way.
This is why sane people live by principles.
WHAT ARE PRINCIPLES?
Principles, at their essence, are rules. Some principles are objective and universal, such as those that govern how the physical universe operates.
Newton’s laws of motion, such as, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” is an objective principle. It functions and operates consistently in the same way with no regard to our personal belief in it.
The knowledge and understanding of these principles improve the outcomes of our life if we take heed to them. But if we are ignorant of them, we can end falling off the proverbial cliff like we denied the law of gravity.
In addition to objective principles, there are also subjective principles. These are the rules that we create for ourselves that guide the direction of our behavior.
The principles that we set for ourselves are based on our values. For example, if we value “peace of mind” we will act in ways that avoid unnecessary conflict and that keep drama to a minimum.
We may create a rule such as, “I mind my own business; what others do is not my concern unless It effects me directly in a way that I have some control over”.
We all have values and principles that we live by rather we are consciously aware of it or not. But if you are dissatisfied with the direction that your life is taking or if you are experiencing confusion, you may need to reexamine the principles you live by.
But before you do that, you have to learn to prioritize your values.
WHAT MEANS THE WORLD TO YOU?
Some people have been taught that they must live according to strict principles that they must rigidly adhere to unless they want to risk compromising their personal integrity.
With this belief firmly cemented in their mind, they can become a slave to following principles that may need to be changed because they have outlived their usefulness.
For instance, if you value honesty, and the principle that you adhere to is to always tell the truth, you may be putting yourself in a weak position to be exploited if you are in an environment where deception is the norm.
So while you may value honesty, the reason that you value honesty should not supersede the value you place on self preservation, which is required for you to be honest in the first place.
So then it would seem that the values you hold have to constantly be reassessed and prioritized according to the situations you encounter in life.
Or..
Maybe your cut from the same cloth of that select section of humanity that men like Socrates and women like Joan of arc belong to.
Socrates was willing to drink poison as a punishment for being convicted of corrupting the youth, even though he did no such thing, because he valued his citizenship as an Athenian to the death.
Joan of Arc was willing to violate gender role norms, be branded as a heretic, and end up being burned to death at the stake for her role the hundred years war, because she valued the truth of her religious visions.
In either case, the values you hold will determine the rigidity or flexibility of the principles you live by.
PRINCIPLES IN ACTION
Once you have determined what you value, your principles should support creating or protecting what you value.
Many people’s values are trapped in an intellectual purgatory; their values are more of an idea in the mind than a conviction that has been settled deep down in the heart.
People like this live in contradiction; their principles or lack thereof do not support the values that they claim to esteem (See: politician).
This can create confusion and tremendous anxiety within a person, as each act that they commit that is not in alignment with the values that they think they have, make them feel like a hypocrite.
If this is you, don’t feel too bad; we all suffer from this malady, because we are imperfect human beings. But we grow as a person by examining and resolving these contradictions.
An easy way to begin to live in harmony with our values is to develop and follow “light” principles, before they can grow into strong principles.
For example, let’s say that you value your physical health and having a strong, functional body, but you barely exercise and eat like a frat boy.
You may have tried many short lived exercise routines and fad diets, before you resort to your couch potato ways. Your only consolation for your failure to follow through is the belief that sometime in the far off future you will finally succeed at getting in shape.
Instead of lying to yourself about how you will get in shape someday or being too hard on yourself if you are not, start off doing a short exercise routine and eating one healthy snack daily.
This could mean that you initially begin doing 10 push ups and eating one stick of celery a day. Even though doing this is nowhere close to what you need to be doing to be in peak physical shape, the more important thing is that you will have started aligning your principles with your values in a small way.
As you continue to act on this principle, it will grow stronger and you can gradually begin to set harder principles for yourself. Before you know it, your self confidence will increase as you come to understand your own power.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Before you can conquer the world, you must conquer yourself and a person who does not conquer themselves will be conquered by others.
Living a principled life is a way of conquering one’s self.
To reiterate, do some self discovery to find your TRUE values, create lite principles to follow that will increase or protect those values, and finally raise your standards by following stronger principles.
But remember, Rome was not built in a day.
Peace.
