What is a Rule You've Made for Yourself?

What is a rule you’ve made for yourself?

A rule I have made for myself is to always do the right thing when faced with a moral dilemma. It is not always easy and sometimes I grumble about my own decision.

The upside is I sleep at night without worrying if I did the right thing. As a result, I have very few regrets in life. I buy into the idea that integrity is the most important quality we can possess as human beings.

When we act with integrity it means we automatically consider what is compassionate and best for everyone. Empathy is a necessity for compassion to exist. Compassion and empathy are two other qualities that I incorporate into other rules I have made for myself.

The questions I ask when making ethical decisions are:

1.      Who does this decision benefit? If it is only me benefitting and is at someone else’s expense – it is a hard no on moving forward.

2.      If everyone does it who would be hurt by the decision?

3.      Do the benefits outweigh the burden? Monetary gain cannot be the only benefit at the expense of our environment, other people’s pockets, and a culture of compassion.

4.      Would I feel comfortable explaining my actions to friends and family? I am not talking about approval from them. In my view this is about consistency. If I say I support the LBGTQ+IA2S+ community and then bash a person because of their pronoun preference my friends would question the consistency of my actions vs, my words saying I support the community.* Inconsistency is one of my biggest pet peeves.

5.      Could I defend my actions if they appeared in media headlines? I know with the current mainstream media outlets this might be a difficult one as I am not sure all actions are reported as they actually occurred. I studied journalism when articles were clearly defined as a news piece and as an editorial piece. The lines have become blurred over the years and make researching and culling facts from opinion more difficult – even for critical thinkers.

Once I commit to a decision, I stick with it until the situation resolves itself or until other factors impact the decision. We have to be flexible if a situation changes to not be so dogmatic that we end up victimizing ourselves or other loved ones.

After writing this, I wonder if I made this rule for myself, or if it was so ingrained into me by my family and early mentors that it is a rule I made to survive in the world of a large family and in the business world.