On principles

I was at the swimming pool the other day and saw a family of three leaving out the door. The little boy suddenly stopped and stood looking through the glass at the swimmers in the pool who were still swimming. The father yelled at him, "Come on what are you doing, just staring at things again? Let's go, its time." I thought about the paradigm that the father had of his son: stupid slow kid who's always doing something he isn't supposed to.

What if the school master called up the father the next day and told him, "We have just received the test results back from your son and have discovered that he has impressively high IQ. He is a genius." The next time his kid stood staring at something, I wonder if the father would go back to him inquisitively and say, "Tell me what you are thinking about son. What do you see?"

Our behaviour results on a paradigm of the world and it is better to base it on our unchanging principles instead of being centered on what happens in the world, what others do, what we do, how we feel, how others feel, and the vicissitudes of life. If you have a problem, the actual problem is that you are looking at it as a problem. It could be something else, such as an opportunity. When it rains lemons, make lemonade. You just need a paradigm shift.

While other things which we could center our lives on fluctuate, principles do not. Correct principles do not change. We can depend on them. Principles don't react to anything. They don't get mad and treat us differently. They won't divorce us. They aren't out to get us. They can't pave our way with shortcuts and quick fixes. They don't depend on the behaviour of others, the environment, or the current fad for their validity. Principles don't die. They aren't here one day and gone the next. They can't be destroyed by fire, earthquake or theft. Principles are deep, fundamental truths, classic truths, generic common denominators. They are the warp and woof running with exactness, consistency, beauty, and strength through the fabric of life.

PS: some lines have been borrowed from the book: The 7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey.