PPPPP

Today I am discussing principles.  It has occurred to me that principles might be a trick of your ego to bypass any opportunity to consider a decision from the point of view of your true self.

PPPPP?  If you are a project manager and reading this you will no doubt be familiar with the 5 P’s of Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

But what about Poor Principles Produce Poor Patterns?  Or equally bad, Poor Patterns Produce Poor Principles?   A real chicken and egg situation.

What has occurred to me is that when a decision comes up that plays to a principle you carry around with you, you are going to make that decision without really thinking about it.  I know I do.  I am even proud of the fact that I stick to my principles no matter what.  

But what if that principle is a product of your ego?  You may be using really poor principles that are causing repeating poor patterns.  Or, bad things that have happened in your life my be creating yet more principles that do not serve you.  A bit of a vicious circle.  

What is worse is that you are likely going to act on these principles without giving them much thought.  So you might consider them evil tools of your ego which bypass your true self's feelings and the chance that they might otherwise have had to influence you. 

As my partner pointed out to me, it is of course possible to use some of the techniques I discussed recently to evaluate a principle and assess if it is one that is coming from your heart or one that is coming from your ego.  Having done that, you can choose to ditch the ones which are ego based.  But, and this is a big but, is that enough?

Most principles and your adherence to them is a subjective matter.  My ‘I always act with integrity’ may mean something very different to yours.  So, even if your principle is from the heart, your ego can still disabuse your heart of having its say when it comes to the judgement call.  It can trick you by coming up with an ego based decision and claim that it is based upon a heart based principle.  Oh dear!

So, where are you now on the concept of principles?

I am now thinking that I need to make sure that for every decision I make, I need to make sure that my true self has had its say, even if the decision looks like it is based on an obvious principle.