Principles of Life

[cyningdun]

While I was talking to Andrew at lunch today, I realized there are certain principles which I believe lead to a good life. I am quite bad at following some of these, but I believe if I followed them I would be a much happier and better person than I am right now. They may seem flaky

Comments

[andy16666]

Saint Francis would have been proud. :)

I know we tend to be hard on ourselves thinking we don't live up to what I want to be, but I really think see those principals in the way you live, and it's made you into a very good person. Thanks for sharing them.

[g4c9z]

1. Focusing on yourself is different than pride. (Therefore not focusing on yourself is different than humility.)
12. You can't enjoy bad food.
19. You can't choose to enjoy learning. You can only choose to learn.
21. No. As an idealist, I can't accept that one.

Interestingly, your points have the form of modern morality (like the principles we're taught in school), but most of them are a lot different (and better than) those principles.

[cyningdun]

Thanks for the compliment, but also:

1. I think "focusing too much on yourself" is how I define pride. How you do define it?
12. I can. I can, for example, laugh at myself for being silly enough to eat it (if I didn't have to), or be glad that I am improving the range of foods I am able to eat, or be happy to either know or have the knowledge reinforced that the food is actually bad.
19. One way to choose to enjoy learning is choosing to learn about something that interests or excites you. Although perhaps I should add a "try to", because not everyone is aware of what they would enjoy learning and may not think they would enjoy learning anything. That said, I haven't met a person who doesn't enjoy learning something.
21. Okay, we'll have to differ there. I don't think, for example, that I can bring people back from the dead when I miss them. Therefore I have to accept that dead people are gone from my life, at least for as long as I am living.

[g4c9z]

1. Thinking highly of yourself; thinking you're great. (Focusing too much on yourself is called self-centredness.)
12. Then it's not the food you're enjoying.
19. Then it's not the learning you're enjoying - it's the subject you're learning about. (Some people do enjoy learning for it's own sake, but whether they enjoy it is beyond their control.)
21. An example is not a proof. But a counterexample is a disproof, and so I say that I should try to save the environment from destruction, even though I can't. It's the trying that makes it a morally good action, not whether I can succeed.