The Secret of Life

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Many people develop their own little key to life. What is/are yours?
Mine are thus:
1.) Personal Happiness
2.) Happiness of Others
3.) Living Honorably


1.) Personal happiness is simple. You do what you want to do if it makes you happy as long as it does not kill someone, steal from someone, damage property, etc.

2.) Happiness of others refers to doing things that allow others to accomplish #1 and that which helps others survive comfortably, such as volunteering at a homeless shelter.

3.) Living honorably is more complex. According to Dictionary.com, honor is honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions. This is true, but for me it means more than that. Honor is tied to one's reputation. After one dies, what is left is one's name and one's reputation. Thus it is best to have a good one. Honor is nobility, chivalry, kindness, thoughtfulness, helpfulness, generosity, strength, boldness, courage, respectfulness, mindfulness, and discipline.


So those are my keys to life. Post yours if you so please. Constructive criticism would be welcomed by most, but please don't insult anyone's way of thinking.

I do not recall where I picked this up years ago, but my personal motto is this:

"Be true to yourself, and learn to be content."

The idea of doing as we wish as long as doing so does not hurt others can be okay as far as it goes, but I have found it best to clarify that a bit by placing my focus on doing *right* things. Hedonism is hedonism, and living only for oneself does not ultimately produce either happiness or contentment ... and yes, you have noted the essence of other-centered action as part of doing as we wish: "... such as volunteering at a homeless shelter." Omission can leave others in pain just as surely as commission can place them there.

Honesty and loyalty seem fairly common among some of us, and we do well in being true to that about ourselves while caring about and for others just as we already do for ourselves.

Learning to be content can be quite challenging at times, but that has become a little easier now that I know *everybody's* ice cream eventually melts!

I've tried to do this in a few points before... usually I go on for pages though when I do. But here is the best short form 4 principles for living I can come up with.

1. Truth at all costs. About yourself, the world, the universe and others around you.
2. Never be content. You can know more, and be more.... Contentment is an excuse of laziness.
3. Appreciation. The positives of contentment without the negatives.
4. Trying to live paradigm free. Make no assumptions, simply weigh out the possibilities and their likelihood, then apply that to your decisions.

Would be a boring world if we all had the same methods.
Would be an awful world in that it was too simple and thus not worth examining, if 3 or 4 simple little axioms could answer all questions.

But having such axioms, even if we never put them into words, can help us through those "terribly complicated and difficult problems of life"

Unfortunately if we want to share it with others, we have to put it into words.