Katelyn Aguinaga

Carroll, Kelly, Wilczynski

English III

7 April 2019

Goodness Gracious

The Google definition of ethics is moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the

conduction of an activity. Ethics can be incorporated into justice. Having a sense of justice

should be taken into consideration when trying to make ethical decisions. Although this doesn’t

necessarily mean that if ​every​ decision is justified they are ​all e​ thical- it may only be true for

some more than others. These next 10 Rules to Live By are influenced by the Virtue Framework

of ethics and follow Natural Duties for humanity.

Following a Virtue Framework means to make decisions that a good person would make

and to ultimately make you feel like a better person- naturally, that would include decisions that

directly apply to you. Rules like are to 1) Put good effort into what you are doing and 2) Find a

safe passion in life. Putting your best effort into something, even if it’s not something you are

very excited about, will make you feel better when you’re done. When the outcome is good and

you know you put your best into it, it produces a mindset that you’re best is good and that

mindset will continue on in your life. Finding a safe and nondestructive passion in life gives a

person something a purpose in life. Finding something you love to do and doing it makes you

happy. Part of a human’s natural duty is to take care of themselves and make sure they are happy

and healthy. It’s important to not ignore your own needs and making a decision based on that.
 It’s also important to acknowledge other people. Rules to follow to be a good person to

others are 1) Do no harm, 2) Be honest, 3) Be kind to everyone, 4) Be open-minded, 5) Take care

of people without expecting a favor in return, 6) Don’t be selfish, 7) Help those in need and 8)

Respect everyone regardless of age, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, skin

color, social class, disability, or anything that differentiates you and them. Each of these rules

encourages a person to be better for other people. Even if the other person isn't exactly the

kindest or most respectful to you, it’s better to ignore it and treat them like you’d treat anyone

else and how you would want to be treated. Knowing that you were kind and took “the high

road” and helped someone can boost your mood and encourage a mindset that it’s better to

follow all the rules stated above.

It took some deliberating to create this list and to shorten it to only 10 rules. But once I

started to think about how I would want to be treated and how I am to people, it became easier to

come up with these 10 rules. Based on what ruled I live by, and what I believe, and what others

believe and how they act, I came up with these simple rules that can greatly increase your and

other’s way of life and make someone’s day better. I did make some revisions to these rules. For

the 8 rules stated in the previous paragraph, I revised them to apply to everyone, not just certain

groups or to only those who are kind and respectful. I wanted the mindset that these ruled created

to be that someone should follow these rules for everyone.

Since I based some of these rules on how I am, I do try to follow my own rules to be a

good person. I still need work, though. Following these 10 rules, I feel like I would be happier on

a daily basis. Finding a passion would motivate me, being kind for everyone would boost my

mood and feel better about myself. If everyone in the world followed these rules, I believe that a
lot of smaller tensions would go away. The problems between the common people would

disappear and everyone would be happier. Everyone would be good people if they followed

those 10 rules to live by. Or, at least, it’d be a good start.