Principles, Do You Have Them? You Need Them!

Principles sound so outdated, old fashioned and no longer of this time. But are they? Do we need principles and what are they? It is important to have a clear definition of what principles are. The official definition is: A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning. It sounds important but is not clear this way.

Transcript

Principles.

Do you have them?

You really need them.

Principles sound so outdated,

Old-fashioned and are really no longer of this time.

But are they?

Do we need principles?

And why?

What are they?

It is important to have a clear definition of what the principles are.

The official definition is a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as a foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning.

It sounds very important but let's be honest,

It's not clear this way.

Principles seem to be a fundamental truth.

Yes,

That's correct.

But this truth is personal or considered a truth by a specific group in society.

A principle is a fundamental belief which gives pillars to your walls of life.

Your life,

Love,

Belief,

Knowledge and even science are built on it.

We accept them as truth even when they are only our own perception and agreement within a group.

Principles are needed as cement inside your personality and in society.

They are vital to our existence as human beings.

All principles are invented to suit our personality,

The society we live in,

The country and for sure the nation.

Some principles even define a person,

Group or society.

In the next parts I give some examples of these clear defining principles.

A major problem of the current society and maybe of you yourself too,

Is the fact that principles became unclear,

Little defined and often they are considered as old fashioned or even wrong.

Having principles in some groups is considered not done.

And having them a mistake.

But these people have never thought about the real truth of the fundaments of life.

And did not discover that humanity is based on having principles in the first place.

Have you ever defined your principles of life already?

Did you ever take the time to make a list of what are your personal principles?

I did.

Mine are very simple.

I never ever did smoke,

Drink alcohol.

I never did and will use drugs of any voluntary nature.

I have a gamble.

I will never make use of prostitutes,

So I don't pay for sex.

I sport and take exercise when and where ever possible to take care of my health.

I eat as healthy as possible and try to have a regular lifestyle.

These are my personal principles and I have lived with them all my life.

And I have my reasons to do that.

I never expect others to follow them and accept people to have others that even oppose mine directly.

That is their good right and their truth.

My principles are made to give me a personal stability and I did.

Because of them I could accomplish what I did in life.

The question for you is did you define your principles?

Have you ever write down your fundamental truths and visualize them clearly?

Our next step is what are your principles in life?

Let's define them.

To know your personal principles is important to find the right part in life.

To do this you should look at the society you live in.

It is important to understand your environment before you turn inward and look at yourself.

The fundaments of your society can oppose your personal principles and explain you why you have not been feeling well for a long time.

Many people do not feel at place in certain companies,

Groups or even their society as their personal principles conflict with the ruling environment.

This conflict can be hidden beneath a whole mountain of behavior rules,

Education and other matters.

Knowing the principles of your environment is the first step to know yourself.

The first step is to look at the principles of the country you live in.

Did you ever figure out what are these fundamental principles that everybody should follow?

They are different for every society.

Often we think that the law and the regulations are the principles,

But they are not.

We have the laws and the perception of the people.

A typical Dutch principle is that we all know that we have to pay tax,

But do whatever is possible to pay as less as possible.

A principle of the Dutch is to avoid to pay tax as much as possible.

We all know we have to pay,

But even so we try to pay as little as possible.

Here we see a conflict of law and principle.

They are often not the same.

Another principle of the society is to eat cheese and drink milk products.

Most of us do so and we consider it as a fundamental rule for our health.

This principle is followed by most people and it shows benefit to us all as individual and society.

So there is no conflict here.

Your first task is to find out the principles of your society.

So pick up pen and paper.

Create four columns and give each column a name.

The first is the society.

The second is the neighborhood.

The third column is the family and the fourth is your personal.

Use a different color for every column so you can compare them later on.

During this research,

You find that rules and regulations can conflict as shown before.

With the principles of society and individuals,

It's very likely that some of the principles you find in society conflict also with you as a person.

Religion or political principles are strong and often overlooked as being defining truths for our society.

But they are.

These principles can make and mark a society very clear and define the persons living in that place.

It is important to recognize the importance of these principles.

When you are able to define the principles of society,

We get closer to home and you try to define the principles of your neighborhood.

Is it a rich neighborhood?

Are the streets straight or strange of shape?

Are the buildings high or low?

Are these principles?

Yes,

As they define your neighborhood.

These are clearly the fundaments it is built on.

Try to find out around five to 10 simple principles that are defining and fundaments of your place.

Now you have two lists.

We add the first list before we come to our personal list.

Try to find five to 10 principles of your family.

What are the basic principles of your family?

Are they open or close?

Family oriented or not?

Loving or quarreling?

Are boys more important than girls?

Is education important or labor?

Is money more important than other things?

Is career very important?

There are many principles in a family.

You never saw them as being a principle.

But these things that build the foundation of the family and brought it in by your grandparents,

Your parents and you,

The children and probably now your own children.

Every personality they add to the foundations of the family.

Yes,

Even you.

We wish to find the solution to that.

We need to ask a most important question.

What are your principles?

Do you know your personal principles?

Did you ever list them before?

If you did pick them up and compare them with three other columns.

We have made already informal parts of this session.

If you did not make your own principles clear already.

Let's start with finding them here.

They are very important as you need to know them to know yourself.

The first step of knowing your principles is by asking intimate questions to yourself.

I just suggest a few.

Some of them will be shocking,

But they are needed to open your eyes for reality and you may change the question and have completely different ones.

But I suggest a few.

Write down the answer and use the language that seems appropriate to you.

There is no need to share your data with anyone.

These are your private matters of the mind.

Let me remind you again.

This is a search for your principles and I have no judgment about them.

They are your rules,

Your life,

Your guidelines and you have to live this life.

So the questions are,

Are you an easy person to get in bed with another person?

Or what gender do you prefer?

Or define the kind of food you like to eat and when?

Or are you a morning or an evening person?

Or how do you like to dress?

Or what kind of fashion does attract you?

Or remember my life rules?

What about yours?

Do you drink,

Smoke,

Use drugs,

Gamble or anything else?

Or do you like to work hard?

Not hard.

Or you don't like to work at all.

Or are your hobbies a part of who you are or are they just temporary?

Or do you know what others say about you when they describe you?

So not backbiting you.

Please take your time and ask yourself more questions.

Write each answer down.

After you wrote them down,

Review them one by one and ask yourself the question.

Does this answer define me?

Does it show who I am and what I consider important in my life?

Look,

If the answer is of a temporary nature or it is something you did carry around all your life and you have no problem to carry it around the rest of your life.

A fundamental principle is strong,

Much changing and give you support when you need it.

Real principles are the fundamental roots of your being,

Your personality.

They show who you are and who you want to be.

As a last action,

You put all four columns in a line and compare them.

You will find a big difference in what you consider important in society and what you consider on a personal level.

Some people find a lot of comparing items and are more integrated in that society than others.

Do not be surprised of any result.

Accept it and try to understand it.

You are a product of yourself and your environment.

A unique personality which can fit in this environment in some ways and in other ways you don't fit in at all.

If you are not happy in your current place,

The list may give you an inside look of the reasons why not.

Sometimes we have to make more effort and help is needed.

Hey,

Don't bother.

Just try and ask and if you want,

You can even ask me.

Question and answer.

Question one.

Can I copy the principles of my parents or others close to me?

Answer one.

No,

Definitely not.

You are unique in every way.

Look at your DNA.

You are a mixture of father and mother and still you own personal unique results.

That is you.

It is important you define yourself,

A self that is standing in society.

On its own legs,

From on the ground with your feet,

Your principles should rule your life.

Question two.

How many principles do I need to live a good life?

It can be one,

Two,

Three,

Four or more.

Some people have many.

It is all up to you.

Until this moment,

I never met a single person who had only one principle.

But maybe a you can be the first.

In reality,

We all have much more than a few principles,

Only we do not discover them or wrote them down.

That is your task here.

Clarify who you are by the things that define you.

Question three.

Some intimate questions I do not dare to ask or answer myself.

Is that strange?

Answer three.

In different cultures,

Some personal and intimate topics are normally avoided,

Rejected or even prohibited.

Fact is that this works against personal development and improvement.

It is important to know even your most intimate thoughts that you have.

Yes,

Some thoughts may be prohibited,

Considered wrong or even dirty.

But that is who you are and you do not need to share any information publicly.

Keep secret what is needed to stay secret.

It is your life.

You only need to know yourself.

Others will have to do with you the way how you are.

And they don't have to know your inner fires.

Question four.

Are my principles lifelong?

Will they ever change?

Answer four.

In general said,

Principles change when life is changing.

Most principles fit with a specific lifestyle,

Environment and circumstances.

And when they change,

So will your principles.

You adjust principles more than once in your life.

And some you will radically delete them.

Question five.

Are principles always in an active state or are they principles in a passive state in your life?

Answer five.

There are active and passive principles that depends on the situation.

Let me give an example.

You are principally against gambling,

But you never enter a casino or take part in any other gambling situations.

Your principle is passive.

You do not need to apply it.

An active principle,

For instance,

I support to make my health stronger and I do it as often as I can.

It's with you all the time.

You use it,

Apply it and keep it.

It's working for you.

So it is a very active principle.

This is the end of this podcast.

My name is Arnald van de Weere.

I'm from the Netherlands.

If you would like to know more of me,

Please check my website or just around the Internet.

You will find enough.

Thank you for listening and hope you follow more of the lectures.