Do you have Principles that guide you through your life journey?
Most of us do have Principles, we just might not think about them much or even acknowledge them, but it’s really useful if you spend some time becoming aware of your Principles as it can really help to keep you on the right path and help you make great decisions.
Here are mine:
1. ME – for me this means that I design my life around me. Now that might initially sound selfish, but it is entirely sensible. If I design my life around others, it leaves me ungrounded, afloat, trying to please others and devaluing me. The ‘others’ might change – they often do – and if I have designed my life around someone else’s version, where does that leave me? I therefore need to know myself, my desires, my passions, my purpose very clearly, or else it gets very easy to be drawn into living other people’s expectations and their versions, which is not a great path to happiness or fulfilment.
2. INTEGRITY – in all areas and in all ways. For me it means embracing all that I do from a place of truth, honesty and fairness, whether I’m dealing with others or myself. This has helped and guided me so much in my business, personal growth and relationships. Living without Integrity is not a great path to happiness and fulfilment.
3. FREEDOM – how easy is it for us to restrict ourselves, to end up living a life we really don’t like, to be a person that we don’t really like, to be in relationships that we don’t really like, to be in a job that we really don’t like and to end up constantly restricting our freedom, which is not a great path to happiness or fulfilment.
4. RESPONSIBILITY – realising that we all have choices and taking responsibility for those choices. Acknowledging that the power to change comes from me and not to be sucked into victim mentality, which is not a great path to happiness and fulfilment.
That doesn’t mean to say that I succeed in living my life by these all the time, in fact in the past it was quite the opposite. I gave all of the above away by not living a life that was designed on my needs, not being honest with myself which totally restricted my freedom in many areas and it took me some time to take full responsibility for my choices.
I am now so much more aligned to my principles and consequently so much happier. If things don’t feel right for me, or if I’m making changes, I pause and check in with my principles… This helps me so much to know whether it’s the right thing for me or not. We can all get drawn into ‘obligations’, do the things that we think will please others, do the things that society says we are supposed to do without taking the time to stop and assess whether it is going to lead you down your path towards happiness and fulfilment.
I would love to know what your Principles are?
If you want to Expand, Explore and Engage in a safe place with others, once a month or once every 6 weeks at Balance, then do drop me a quick email and I’ll make something happen 🙂