Ten principles important to me

published Feb 02, 2017, last modified Feb 09, 2017

Self-discovery exercise

As part of my process of self-discovery, I've outlined ten principles that are important to me, and the reasons why they are important:

  1. Consent / nonaggression, because nonconsensual actions (aggression) are evil.
  2. Loyalty, because disloyal people have caused me a lot of pain.
  3. Truth, because living a lie hurts sooner or later.
  4. Pay yourself first, because you can't properly help others until you yourself are okay, and for that you need to help yourself first.
  5. Joy, because a life without joy is depressing.
  6. Virtue, because living a life of vice is destructive and causes pain.
  7. Effort, because easy things may be pleasant, but everything in life worth attaining requires effort.
  8. Perseverance, because life sometimes throws challenges at you that will demoralize you, and if you let that happen instead of persevering, good opportunities will extinguish themselves.
  9. Learning, because the more you know, the better prepared you are to attain what you want in life.
  10. Integrity, because a life of integrity gives you the most powerful reason to be proud of yourself: you choose to do the right thing, with probity, honesty, rectitude and decency.

What are yours?