How Values and Principles Unlock Your Potential

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jasmine has an old fashioned alarm clock to wake her up and she realized that looking at her phone in the morning gives her slight anxiety. Slightly anxious because of all the notifications she’s received from the night before. She knows once she opens up her phone, she goes down a rabbit hole of keeping up with all the latest updates with her friends and news from her social media. Therefore she promised herself she would dedicate her morning to being more productive by reading and exercising. 

However, if the phone is right next to her, there’s an impulse to check it. The urge to check becomes almost habitual at this point as she sees her brand new sparkling phone case. Jasmine is not alone facing this struggle. Most of us have gone through the temptation.  It’s so easy to look at your phone in the morning and it’s also very easy not to look at your phone. There’s always an upward momentum route and a downward momentum route. 

But there’s a way to train ourselves to act in one particular manner than the other.

And that is, habit. 

Allow me to take that word, and emphasize the important role it has.

Before I get to this, I must share that we all have “greatness” within us. We all have deep inner potential that’s just waiting for it to be tapped into.

Through habit, from society and possibly negative family upbringings, we lost how to act in a way that allows ourselves to be the best possible version of ourselves. 

Some of us know our core values, but out of the people who do, it’s extremely difficult to act accordingly with it. It’s the same as knowing that you should eat healthy and take care of your body, but not following through with it. 

Why is this the case? Again, it's a habit. 

The habit of a downward slope is so powerful that people aren’t reaching their true potentials. 

But the good thing is, it starts from one positive change at a time and there’s something called principles. 

Principles are timeless wisdom, universal truths, when used properly, propels us forward.

For example, setting audacious goals is a universal truth that allows one person to think big, be confident, and behave boldly. It complies very well with those who value “boldness” or “courage”. 

And core values are certain values we carry with us both through when we’re born and through the certain high and low points we experience in our lives. 

For example, if the lack of boldness brought me the most pain in my life when I was younger, that’s a value I cherish. Because the presence of it gives me joy and allows me to live my life to the fullest.

Same goes for the high points. If compassion brought me the peak moments in my life, then that could be woven out as a core value.  We all have values we stand up for that we must discover for ourselves.  However, it requires a bit of reflection. 

But once we have these values, we must associate them with the right principles to act by. And through the act of practicing these principles, these values turn into virtues. There’s a subtle difference between values and virtues.

Virtues are values in action. Values are purely aspirational. I can say I value “honesty’ but will that mean I will be honest every time? 

Years of bad habits can kick in. In order to truly live with “honesty”, it’s important to mold that characteristic into your identity, through consistent practice. And this can be connected to how hard it is to do something and also how easy it is as well. 

When given the opportunity to be honest, it’s also very easy to lie. So in order to form these good habits, the goal is to practice one virtue at a time. This is what Benjamin Franklin did. 

He sought out to be the best person he can be, and what he did was take the idea of what a “good” person is from Aristotle's theory on virtues, and Ben intentionally tried to embody those characteristics. And he did it one at a time. At the end of his life he was able to practice 12 sets of virtues, which arguably allowed him to accomplish so much in his life. And I think others can agree, which allowed him to have his face on the $100 bill. 

Following Benjamin’s footsteps, we can also strive to become the best person we can be. One virtue at a time.

It shouldn’t matter at what age we start, you can always be a “better” you. And there should be joy from that because one universal human joy stems from growth. Growth brings a feeling of fulfillment.

So we should try to live each and every day to the best of our abilities. That should be good enough. That should give you peace. Because we tried, and effort should never be something that is scoffed at. It’s good to remember not to compare yourself with others. Your journey is solely your own. There should be solace in that. There is only one of you, with your own unique characteristics and experiences. 

We all have different perceptions of the same thing. There’s no one else experiencing that EXACT same thing you are experiencing right now. 

Values, principles, and virtues. That should be the order in which we should think about in order to help keep ourselves organized. One at a time. 

To live the best life we can. Day by day. That should be it.