The Purpose of Principles and the Principle of Purpose
How do you know who you are?
Have you ever considered the depth of that question? I don’t mean in the sense of “Well, I’m me.” I mean, who is that person? What makes them different from any or all other people? What defines a person? Is it just their outward appearance? Could you recreate a person digitally so that it was indistinguishable from the real thing? If so, what would be encoded in that digital representation? How would you decide what parts of a person are important to who they are and what parts are just ancillary or incidental?
People are amazingly complex amalgams of genetics, their experiences, their own choices and the consequences thereof. But more than any of that, what identifies an individual person most strongly is…..well, their identity. That image of how they see themselves and how they assume everyone else sees them as well. Every choice they make, every emotional outburst, every distortion of their perspective and their interactions with their fellow compatriots - all are anchored in and explained by this one self-image. It is central to our lives so intrinsically that it sits there invisible: part of the furniture or the background that we no longer see, nor note the effects. But this invisible, unobserved portion of our selves defines us more than any other thing in our lives.
That….sounds important.
One of the most powerful things you can do to shape the outcome of your life is to intentionally and consciously shape this identity into something that serves your purposes. To custom shape your identity like a master gardener, clipping leaves not just to remove them where they do not belong, but to encourage growth into the areas where they do. Because here is the plot twist to this little story. As much as you may think of your identity as who you are, it is much closer to say that it represents the person you are becoming. It is your own goal that you unconsciously move yourself toward in every one of a thousand little decisions you make every day.
So, how do we do that? How do we tame that sleeping dragon to shape itself into a person that we will be proud to be, that will lead us to a life where we are happy, fulfilled, excellent, and loved? It starts with understanding the “biology” if you will, of that identity dragon. To know that the “bones” of that dragon are made up of things we call “principles.” Principles can best be defined, I think, as statements of truth that you not only acknowledge are true, but that are deeply important to you. “All power is the ability to do work.” “You attract more flies with honey than vinegar.” “We are all part of the same universe.” “Truth only hurts when it’s pressed up against lies.”
As each of us progresses through our life, experiencing the circumstances that surround, shape, and form us, we collect these principles, often from other people, often from people we admire. And we adopt these truisms almost subconsciously into our person. And as each of these principles becomes part of who we are, they start to interact with the other principles we’ve already adopted, sometimes transforming them slightly or combining in unexpected ways to become a new thing. It is these often unexpected interactions that combine in their entirety to form this Identity Dragon, this image of who we are, and who we expect to be.
But as we grow, as our self matures and coalesces into a more unified form, something very interesting happens. This identity, which was originally just a survival mechanism, starts to push us forward, and becomes a reason not just to survive, but to become better than we are, more than we need, more than is expected. To accomplish things that could be left on the cutting room floor. To work hard not just in exchange for goods or personal accolades, but because we just want to see it done. We want to live in a world where this thing has been accomplished, so we set ourselves unaccountably to accomplishing that thing. Often these larger than life objectives become the quintessential goal around which we arrange our entire lives, sacrificing everything else we know or own on the altar to our biggest vision of what could be. This, then, becomes our Purpose. And Purpose is what has driven every major advancement of human society.