Sometimes it will look like nothing is working out in your favour. Sometimes it will feel like the universe is conspiring against you and luck has turned its back on you. Sometimes the feeling of helplessness may become so overwhelming that you are forced to consider lowering your standard.
If you’ve ever felt like that, you are not alone. It is a natural feeling in times of distress.
But there is something that serves like a support system in this trying times that everyone needs to have, and it’s none other than the good foundations provided by correct principles.
Principles are the foundation of anyone’s character. The kinds of principles your life is based on determines the kind of person you are. It also determines the kinds of virtue and skills that can be built on it, virtues that are compatible with the principles.
If the foundation is shaky, it will take very little effort to knock the structure off when a wind blows-the wind of distress and adversity. It would knock whatever virtue in form of building blocks out of place very easily.
But a firm foundation – come rain, come shine, come wind – will go a long way to preserve the integrity of the building.
In practical term, the period when we experience helplessness is one of our most vulnerable moment. It is a period of doubt, when you second guess everything you’ve done up to that moment, when you think you’ve set your standards too high, maybe you are too strict on yourself and if you lower your standards that one time can’t ruin you.
A good foundation doesn’t mean a building won’t face whirlwinds and stormy days. The same way, a life based on correct principles will still face hardship and trying moments, it means the correct principles will help through the shaking moments just has the foundation serves as an important line of defence. What it means is, you already possess the fortitude to stand through the adversity.
But that is not all. Just as a good foundation does not totally immune the building in stormy weathers, the structure and building blocks also do a lot. They have to work together with the foundation so as not to betray the integrity of the building as a whole. That’s what virtues are to principles. They are the building blocks built on the foundation of correct principles. The virtues have to be in tune with the principles.
When doubts come, the virtues and skills will be the first line of defence. They are the ones that answer the adversity and doubts in us that, “I may be a little piece of block, but it I’m out of place, the whole building is compromised. I may be one, but I matter.
Clayton M. Christensen said, “it is easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time, than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.”
Once a single virtue is compromised, the whole building is as weak as if the foundation was all weak.
If the principles are firm, it won’t matter what one has to endure, they would stand firm.
As Leonardo da Vinci said, “I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.”
What’s the takeaway?
Tough times will always come at a point in everyone’s life. What determines how each person gets through them are the principles their lives are based on and the virtues they’ve built on them.
Correct principles are firm foundations that provide the necessary fortitude needed no matter the difficulty one has to go through.
