What Are Your Guiding Principles?

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

When you’re faced with a decision, what drives you?  Do you take the path of least resistance or act out of a need for self-protection?  Or are you guided by certain internal principles that defy apparent logic or short term thinking?  Part of self actualization – living a life built around knowing who you are – is having clearly defined principles and living within them:

  • Illuminado Boc earned under $5.00 per day driving a motorcycle taxi on central Bohol Island in the Philippines.  Money was tight, and he was already behind on his rent the day that he had to take his wife to the hospital.  That was the day he found a bag of cash — $17,000 – in his taxi.  Illuminado went to the local police station and turned it in so quickly that the woman reporting the loss was still there.  He explained, “It was not mine.”
  • In Great Britain, a reporter spent a day going to cash machines and “accidentally” leaving £20 behind.  Other bank machine users spent the day chasing him down to return it.  In one case an honest citizen followed him all the way into the produce section of a grocery story.  Only one person kept the money.
  • In 2008, three year old Paulina Filippova, hiking with her family, fell over the side of a cliff.  She clung to a tree root, her feet dangling 1,000 above the American Fork River in Utah.   Family friend Vitaly Tsikoza and strangers Mickey Horak, a novice hiker, and Marc Ellison, who suffered from a potentially lethal blood illness and was weakened from a bone marrow transplant three years before, climbed down to rescue the little girl.  Tsikoza slipped off a narrow ledge and fell 200 feet to his death, but the other two men were able to retrieve the girl and hold her on the steep, gravelly ledge until rescue workers could rappel down to help them.

The Philippine taxi-driver could have caught up on his rent and paid for anything his wife needed with that $17,000.  It wouldn’t have been hard to justify.  In these tough economic times, who couldn’t use an extra £20 or $20?  And discovering it just waiting at the ATM machine – that’s found money!  And those men who rescued Paulina – they had lives and concerns of their own.  Why should they risk — and in Tsikoza’s case, sacrifice – their lives for someone else?

Each of these people were driven by their principles – the internal guides that, for them, were more compelling than self-interest.  And while there is a cost to living according to your principles, it is the path to the peace of mind, joy, and fulfillment that comes through self actualization.


Roger K. Allen, Ph.D. is an expert in personal transformation, leadership, and teams. His tools and methods have helped hundreds of businesses and tens of thousands of people transform the ways they work and live. To learn more, visit www.theheroschoice.com.


About Roger K. Allen
Roger K. Allen, Ph.D. is an expert in personal transformation and family development. His tools and methods have helped tens of thousands of people live happier and more effective lives. To learn more, visit www.rogerkallen.com>.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

My Purpose Statement

My purpose is to teach you strategies to replace negative patterns with a positive state of mind from which you can achieve your greatest desires and live a joyful and abundant life.

Subscribe Today!

Sign up to receive Dr. Roger Allen's newsletter, and receive a free copy of his eBook, Master Your Self-Defeating Emotions!

Stay Connected...

Email Format

"I want to write and thank-you for the workshop I attended. It was fantastic! I feel so much lighter and happier. I am determined to do everything I can to keep on this high; to live from my true self. Thank-you so, so much!"

Linda Boice

My Purpose Statement

I help you make better choices so you can be fully conscious, present and responsible for your life.

Subscribe Today!

Sign up to receive Dr. Roger Allen's newsletter, and receive a free copy of his eBook, Master Your Self-Defeating Emotions!