Personal Discovery: Principles to Live By Part 1

In previously figuring out what legacy we want to leave, we have developed a road map for ourselves that guide our actions and decisions. To further develop that, we compile a personal rule book for ourselves, a way of living that, when internalized, help us to make the right decisions that fits our needs and goals at any point in our lives. These are principles we live by. In some ways, principles transcend even our goals and our legacy. They become a way of living out the way we are, not only for ourselves, but also as an example of who we are to the world. They become the final say in tough decisions and may even turn us away from goals that we may have been wholeheartedly pursuing merely because it would betray our principles. Principles are ingrained in us, they drive us, and contain us, and make us do things that may only be right in the long run. In this way, we must choose the principles that we live by carefully for they may determine the final course in our lives no matter what else we may strive for.

For many, there are principles that are already ingrained in us, taught to us by our peers, our family, our environment, our particular way of life or moment in history. Look at the way you make decisions both large and small naturally, when you acquiesce or when you stand firm, how you feel bad when you feel like you betrayed one of the principles. These are the rules that drive our life. It may seem sometimes that life is the only game we play where we are learning the rules as we go along and everyone seems to have a different set of them. It is important to be cognizant of them or you may be at the mercy of your principles rather than the other way around. Though it is notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to change your principles, this doesn’t mean we should be blindly driven by them. Every major decision made, and most of the minor ones, should be consciously made. By consciously made, it is meant that we are fully aware we are making a decision that have effects and consequences and we understand the reasoning behind each decision. This doesn’t have to be a long drawn-out process. In fact, this process would probably be a split second of reasoning. Also, this shouldn’t paralyze us in making decisions. Instead, this should make it easier to make decisions because we are prepared for them and we can follow through every decision we make in the good faith that we made the best decision we could have made and we can deal with the consequences no matter what may happen.

Understanding what general principles we follow on a daily basis should develop naturally from our personal conversation and discovery of ourselves. However, it is important to develop for yourself, overarching principles that are specifically set out to not only cover our general principles, but also encompass the general focus of our life. It’s like the pointy tip of an arrowhead shooting forwards in our life, it leads and we follow behind.

We start off with generalities. In many families, they have family crests or mottos that, though the various members of the family go off in their own ways and their own paths, resonate in every member and guides them in accordance with that. This is something that doesn’t affect where you go in life but in how you go about it.

In 1883, on the initiative of Colonel Charles McCawley, the 8^th Comandant of the Marine Corps, the United States Marine Corps adopted the motto Semper Fidelis, often shortened to Semper Fi. This is Latin for “Always Faithful”. The motto signifies the dedication and loyalty that individual Marines have for “Corps and Country” even after leaving the service. Many Marines get this tattooed on themselves as a constant reminder to live their lives by this motto. Even though Marines have gone on to a myriad of different futures, they are all connected and live out this simple phrase.

Activity:

Design a personal crest. Add in symbols that represent the important things in your life and come up with a personal motto that seems to reflect the attitude that you want to face life with. A motto should be short, to the point, and carry a significant meaning. Put it somewhere where you can see it frequently.

Similar to this is the mission statement in business plans. Business plans lay out how a business works, what they are going to sell, how they are going to earn money, where their customers are, how they are going to grow their business. The mission statement, in a business plan, encompasses all of those details by focusing a business in a certain direction. It guides them even when things don’t go according to plan and the unexpected happens. In the same way, sometimes things pop up in our lives that don’t go according to plan or something happened that you don’t know how to deal with. We need something to fall back on and that can be a personal mission statement.

Activity:

Yahoo’s mission statement is “to connect people to their passions, communities, and the world’s knowledge.” Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Though they started out as similar Internet companies, their different focus has led the two companies into developing in different directions. Write your own mission statement as if your life was your business. Ask yourself what direction you want to go in and how you want to get there. What is your life’s purpose? What are your passions? Then write something short and to the point that encompasses what you want to direct your life towards.

For certain people, they have a clear set of principles that not only guides them, but in a way, are defined by them, infusing themselves as the living embodiment of them. Bruce Lee was a martial artist, teacher, and movie star. However, those achievements wouldn’t be as well-known without the principles he developed and lived in his life. They were his longest living legacy and they are even now lived out by many people around the world. Most people know him best for his unique style of martial arts, Jeet Kune Do, or the style of no style. He often exhorted others to be like water, “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

He also lived his life according to his own life principles.

“Basically, I have always been a martial artist by choice, and an actor by profession. But, above all, I am hoping to actualize myself to be an artist of life along the way. By martial art, I mean like any art, it is an unrestricted athletic expression of an individual soul. Oh yes, martial art also means daily hermitlike physical training to upgrade or maintain one’s quality. However, martial art is also about unfolding the bare human soul, that is what interests me. Yes, I have grown quite a bit since the day when I first became a martial artist and am still growing along the process. To live is to express oneself freely in creation. Creation I must say is not a fixed something, a solidification.” – Bruce Lee

Take time to develop your own overarching guiding set of principles. This may take a short time or this may take a lifetime. Sometimes, these principles will change. Sometimes you may break them. But through it all, use them to guide you through it all.

My own principles are shorter and to the point. They may be more succinct but they still give me the boundaries and direction in which I live my life.

• Everything is allowed but not everything is beneficial

• Everything is allowed but not everything is constructive

• Everything is allowed but I will not be mastered by anything.

In the same way, there is no right or wrong way to develop your own set of principles. Just as long as they work in your life and represent the real person you want to be. You may even find that you can change someone’s life or inspire others through it.

David Gentiles was a pastor who wore work boots, drove a creaky Ford pickup and wore a chewed-up Cleveland Indians baseball cap. But he could see the potential in people and convinced those people that they had potential also. This man followed his principles, beliefs, and heart and changed the lives of many people including the best-selling book “Blue Like Jazz” author Don Miller and “90 Minutes in Heaven” author Don Piper. Though he is relatively unknown, his influence is far-reaching and heart-touching because through him, others were given the courage to step out and change so many more lives.