What are your driving principles?

[Randomnity]

These are extremely broad, applying to a wide range of situations (including the other principles), but they pretty much cover what I live by.

In rough order of importance:

1) Nothing to excess. Balance. Neither too much nor too little.

2) Do no harm. Big picture. Use your judgment as to what this means. Sometimes short-term pain prevents long-term harm.

3) Freewill. Your choices are your own. Take responsibility. Don't whine about it. Act.

4) Maximize happiness. As much as possible. Balance with other principles. Appreciate what you have.

5) Be skeptical. Trust when it is warranted. Be aware, not ignorant. Recognize bias.

 

[Mole]

Seeking

I seek -

creativity

empathy

and presence.

Victor.

 

[Seanan]

What are the beliefs or principles that you have that strongly influence all or most of the areas of your life?

1. Sticking to my principles in spite of my own or other's resistance.
2. Applying effort in an attempt to maintain an attitude that contributes positively to my mental and physical well being.
3. Being honest with myself even when that "hurts."
4. Trying to maintain humility... reminding myself that I'm imperfect and will, certainly, fail in much I aspire to.... not letting that knowledge stop me from trying.
5. Acceptance of and loyalty to loved ones.
6. Being as honest as I can with others without doing harm and keeping in mind there is a difference between "pain" and "harm."
7. Acting against perceived injustice when and/or however I can.

 

[Wolf]

Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up.

 

[Mole]

Reciprocal Empathy

I seek -

creativity

empathy

and presence.

Victor.

In empathy I find I want a soul mate, but I am reluctant to be soul mate.

I find I want to be empathised with but I am not so keen on empathising with others.

So I have come to the conclusion that I seek more than empathy rather I seek reciprocal empathy.

And I have found a way of practising reciprocal empathy.

And it requires sustained practice.

So I would like to find or found a group on the internet to practise reciprocal empathy.

Victor.

 

[disregard]

Appreciate what you have; do not live a life of longing.

 

[substitute]

Dammit, I just wrote a careful post explaining my take on this, then it disappeared in a "Database error"!!! :steam:

Well, I'm not writing it all out again. The outline though: I don't like the words 'principles' and 'values' because they have too much cultural baggage around them, and judgements are just waiting in the wings... a person who has no principles/values or who disagrees with someone else's is often judged as a BAD person. I prefer the word 'concepts', as it's more neutral. A person who has a different concept or who has no concepts is not generally judged as evil.

The concept that has guided me most of my life, as long as I can remember, is that I believe the best thing I can do for both myself, the people I meet and the world generally, is to be the best person I can be. So whatever i've done or chosen, it's been in the belief that it'd contribute to that. I'm not interested in what I've got, haven't got, or anything like that - only in trying to discover what and who I really am, so I can flush out the ego like plaque with a disclosing tablet (heheh), actualize and optimize myself, for the motive of giving myself up completely.

 

[suzyk]

-Don't judge people by their looks or answers; respect each perspective.
-Enjoy your life as much as you can.
-Take responsibility for your actions.
-Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
-Carpe Diem!
-Don't let one silly thought bring your whole life down.
-Use both your emotions and logic as criteria for thinking.

I have a lot more, I just can't write them down.