Personal Guiding Principles

Herein I document personal Guiding Principles that I can invoke in life. Some of these I always carry in my pocket written down and rework over time as I read them.

It may be a sentence, a poem, an image, what have you. These are things I reach for in need of clarity, reflection and guidance. They are headlined by a number and a short descriptor of purpose - what the purpose of the particular principle is.

Some of this will only make sense to me. Some of it may help you.

1. Regulation of Force

There is always a path where force does not need to be applied with force to achieve its purpose.

2. Balance in Interaction.

A friendly conversation is its own reward.

3. Clarity in Progress

If there is no clarity in the beginning, how can there be clarity in the end?

4. Simplicity

What would this look like if it was simple?

5. Redirection from hesitation

Poem by Mary Oliver.

“Don’t Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”

6. Orientation - Space

Only the self can rewrite the self can only rewrite the self can only -

7. Avoid over-answering

Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness p.498

“To learn which questions are unsanswerable, and not answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.”