What Is a Principle? How Are Principles Important to Your Life?

"What is a principle? How are principles important to your life?"

A principle in its most basic terms is a basic truth or idea. The truth or idea are permanent and influence everyone in some way. Principles are the rules people live their life by. Principles can be found in religion such as the Ten Commandments, found in business such as the generally accepted accounting principles, and in ethics such as being just. We are surrounded by principles because we live our life in their influence. If we look carefully at ourselves we can see that some of our most coveted ideas are in fact principles. For example the idea of fairness, welfare of others, courage, honesty, equality, and love are principles that society has formed and we have learned. If we have clear principles to live our life with we can have a clear idea of the direction and meaning we want in life. We can make important decisions using our principles as the map. If you believe that keeping promises you make is a important principle to live by you will not break promises or make ones you cannot keep because it would violate you principles and cause cognitive dissonance.

We are the result of choices we have made in our life and we make those choices using our principles. If we follow our principles in every decision we make we will live our ideal life. I wish to live an ideal life that’s why the principles that I have and try to live my life with are so important. The most important principles that I try to use in my life is to live life to the fullest. My decision to study abroad in Taiwan was made using one of my principles to live life to the fullest. Having my principles clearly defined made that decision an easy one.