So, question for you. What drives you? What makes you do what you do everyday? Do you know? Ok, that was several questions but I want us to think about that. Seriously why do you start your day off the way you do? You may not realize it but you are being driven by something. And the key to making your dreams become reality is understanding that truth and using it to your advantage! When you figure out what’s important to you, you can become the architect of what drives you and move those dreams closer to reality.
This is what I call Living by Principle— the first part of the TripleP Framework! When you live by principle life gets a little easier. Why? Because half the decision is made for you already.
So, let’s talk about it. What are principles and how can I build some to live by? The dictionary says that a principle is “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning”.
In other words, principles are the foundation blocks to what you are building. They are the things that bring stability and focus. When you live by a principle it’s something that will make decisions for you. For instance, if I have a principle about living a fit and healthy life (we’ll talk about how to write a good one below), then I’m not going to eat just anything right?
Well how in the world do I even figure out what principles to live by?
Think with the end in mind.
Yup! What do you want people to say about you at your funeral? Ok, this is a little morbid I know but it gets the job done. Thinking about the things you want to accomplish or the legacy you want to leave will help you figure out what really is important in your life. One great exercise to do is write your own eulogy and from there pull out the major themes that stand out to you!
Then, you can take those themes and develop truths for yourself that reflect the future you want to see! Some big bucket items that may be good to build truths that don’t change are:
Spiritual
Health
Family
Friends
Intellectual
Financial
Vocational
Combining the major themes that you see in your eulogy and then honing in on specific principles you want to live by in those buckets will help make life a lot simpler! For instance, my Health life principle is to “I must honor the temple God has placed me in and be an example to others of that honor.” Now because of that theme there are just some things that I won’t do (or at least try not to do! Haha!) I won’t eat that second piece of cake (every time) or I will make a habit of doing some type of exercise every day!
There are two other elements that together with living by principle can help us build a life that can make dreams reality. I call it the TripleP Framework. Over the next few blogs I’ll be breaking down how these three elements can together help you build a life that will make those dreams become reality. Come back next week to learn about the next part of this Framework! But while we wait lets…
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