Best Self Magazine

Time To Toss Your Principles? Discern When Your Principles are Serving You or Not

Are your principles serving you? By David James DiPardo. Photograph of person looking at sunset by Philipp Cordts

Photograph by Philipp Cordts

Are your principles guiding you toward your best self or holding you back?

There was a scene in a popular Hollywood movie a couple years back where a central figure was asked to reject his beliefs in order to spare his life — a life that he had dedicated to those beliefs. To the dismay of many watchers and his followers, he chose to spare his life and reject his principles. While this may seem logical to some, it’s a harder pill to swallow for those of strong faith or beliefs.

That film wasby Martin Scorsese. As the title suggests, too often the outcome of holding too rigidly to our principles is we become silent.As a person of principle and value, I believe having a strong foothold of both provides us with a moral compass that guides our decisions and actions, and contributes to the wellbeing of our society.

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