Principles & Values

Dear Justin, Brett, Jennifer, Zachary, Tiffany, and Jeromy,

I’m not sure if I have talked with you about principles and values before, so before it’s too late for me to do so, I thought I would.

Years ago (in my 30’s) I began to appreciate that a person’s life was better lived if they had principles and values they could know were their own.  And furthermore that they could list these whenever asked. So I wrote mine down and I suggest that you eventually have a list of your own principles and values as well.

Actually, every person has some sort of principles and values they live by, good or bad, flexible or fixed, but few ever take the time to identify them and write them down.  You will find that doing so is a useful exercise.

Principles and values I try to live by are shown below.

———————————–
RICK’S PRINCIPLES (what I believe are good to live by – sort of a “code of conduct”)
-Honesty (telling the truth – being truthful)
-Integrity (consistency in how I apply principles to all elements of my life)
-Fairness (doing unto others as I would have them do unto me)
-Loyalty (to family and friends)
-Value (making life count – giving something of good quality to others and not expecting too much in return)

———————————–
RICK’S VALUES (things in life that are most important to me)
-Family (wanting to be close and involved)
-Community (wanting to enjoy neighbors and participate in community affairs)
-Work (knowing that hard work never hurt anyone)
-Self (knowing that “self” is one person I can always help – staying healthy, safe, and using principles to live by)
-Environment (leaving the world cleaner than I found it)
-Energy (Making efficient use of limited resources)
———————————–

From the dictionary:
Principle… a fundamental belief
Value… to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance.

Love, Dad