“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”_Dwight D. Eisenhower
Our earthly life is a transient one but our afterlife is not. Afterlife is eternal.
But oftentimes, we forget this fact and as a result we let the immediate problems of our transient life drive the choices we make in moments of pressure.
This is how people inadvertently make choices that contract their deepest values and true principles of ethics, hoping that would permanently eliminate the inconveniences of their fear.
And to live like this is to build one’s house on a sandy foundation. It can crumble with onset of any storm. The wisest of people don’t live this way. The wise seem to find ways to make good long-term choices, despite every short-term inconvenience.
Putting True Principles First
To live wisely and avoid regrets of poor moral choices, we need to listen to Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People who wrote:
“I believe that a life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth.
I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self—esteem is primarily a matter of mind set, of attitude—that you can psych yourself into peace of mind.
Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way.”
Albert Einstein expressed the idea another way:
“Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives. Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind.”
The idea is simply to live our lives in accordance with true principles by allowing moral values to drive our everyday choices.
The great thing about this wisdom is that if we live and work in alignment with true principles of morality, we will be protected from living a life that is marred by sorrows of regrets and pains of frustration— in the end.
Making sound choices is often a matter of having good constraints. By limiting our options to those that aligns with true moral values, we will be taking an important step to ensuring that our behavior doesn’t stray from true principles of ethics.
When it comes to principles and values, clarity is essential. If we don’t know what we stand for, then it’s far too easy to get off course, or to make an exception that could lead us to an ugly ending.
To be clear, true principles are nothing hard to find or define. In fact, almost everyone knows them. They are the simple truths that we have been taught since childhood. They are the basic virtues like honesty, integrity, justice, righteousness, humility etc.
You see, whether we like or not, real peace of mind is that state of consciousness which proceeds from living in alignments with these basic virtues.
Wisdom is recognizing that we have the freedom to choose between truth and falsehood and we will personally bear the consequences of our choices.
In the end our character will not be measured by size of our wealth or the height of our position but by the strength of our devotion to true principles of morality and ethics.
