Chad Silverstein walks through narrowing your principles to three you believe in but struggle to practice. His examples: listen more and talk less, the golden rule, and avoiding quick judgment. The point is making them actionable, not just writing a list.
Chapters
Okay, so you're revisiting your principles today. So hopefully you have your 1.0 version of these from earlier days and you could revisit and rinse and take some time, make it a productive action for yourself. Your principles, again, it's how you're living your life. The most important values. And I like to pick things that I. I'm struggling with. I like to pick things that you know, are going to help me deliberately live a certain way. And they're things that I want, they're things I believe, they're things I just don't do such a great job with. One that I had for a very long time and actually still have it is that I believe in a principle of, you know, listen more, talk less. Right? Say less. You know, my principle is loose lips sinks ships because you say too much and you kind of. You shoot yourself in the foot. And when I'm in a group or I'm facilitating, this is a reminder for myself to get other people talking, to get other people, you know, engage with each other. Because just listening to a speaker, again, it could be motivating, but it's. It only does so much. And the real influence comes when you're going to influence yourself. So I just have a strong belief about that, but I don't do such a good job with it. So I. I make that one of my principles that I'm really focused on. So you can have a long list of, you know, whatever, 5, 10, 15 principles that you want to live your life, and you are living your life, and you believe in them deeply. But pick your top three that are ones where maybe you're. You're not doing such a good job living that way always, and you want to. And make those your staples so that your focus is on them. Again, the exercise is not just about having a long list of principles. That's one of the earlier rinses and versions that you'll have. This is about being deliberate and saying, you know, one of mine is the golden rule. Treat people the way I want to be treated. But I really feel like I do that. So it's not something that I struggle with. It's a principle of mine, but I'm not going to put it in my top three. Know, for me, and I've said this, and I said it yesterday and the earlier days about my, my faith and amuna and like, having everything that happens to me happens for a reason, and it's for my good, whether I understand it or not. Well, that's a really hard thing. For me to practice that principle when something hard happens and I don't understand it, I'm tested with that all the time. And so that's. That's going to be number one for me. You know, I think another one of mine is to have a good eye to not judge people, to know that I don't know. I don't know all sides of the story. I can't put myself in someone else's shoes, no matter how good I am. I think I am at that, and I know that I believe that I can't live in someone else's shoes. It's impossible, even if I feel like I can relate to that person. But I'm real quick to judge other people, much harder on them than I am myself. And I think that principle, for me to have a good eye and to see the best in everybody, I'm challenged with that in every relationship that I have. Every time I get frustrated. So that's one of my top three. So figure out what yours are. Figure out where you have a little bit of a struggle with one that you love, that you believe that you're living, but maybe not all the time. And put that at the top of your list and start to organize your list of principles and see kind of what surfaces to the top.
