I have a personal code and it’s very important to me.  The codes others use is equally important to me.

A code is any compilation of laws or principles that regulate conduct.

I’ve worked on developing and refining my own personal code for many years now.  It’s been a conscious and deliberate process.  I love that it’s helped me develop character.

How do I treat someone? How do I treat someone I don’t like? How do I handle it when someone does something that’s not right? How do I handle disagreements? Who has the right to have authority over me? Where do I put my energies? Whom do I allow in to the inner sanctum of friendship? Whom do I help? Whom do I leave alone? What does being courteous and polite really mean? What does respect really look like? How do I handle it if someone doesn’t respect me? How do I handle it if I don’t respect them? How much is it okay to talk about others when they’re not there? How much responsibility for the way things are should I take? What are the things that are the most difficult to do? Should I do them? What does being true to myself really mean? What kind of goals should I set? Who should I recruit into my life? How important is money? What does doing a good job really mean? What does honor really mean to me?

As you can see, it’s a long code of principles.

A principle is a higher truth because it’s the truth from which all other truths derive.  When the word principle was first born it meant origin or cause, coming from the Latin word principium which meant a beginning, origin.

The principles you have are the source of all the truths you operate with.  For example, is your principle that people are good?  Or that they’re just out for themselves? Whichever principle you operate with, it will be the source of and generate many other truths for you.

One of my basic principles is the importance of every other person on this planet.  Another is kindness.  Another is the sacred nature of communication.  I believe awareness is king.

The purpose of my personal code is to enable me to live a life that takes me to higher truth, releasing deeper emotional satisfaction, giving more value to others, gaining greater spiritual freedom.  To enable me to not only live in harmony with the 7 billion other people on this planet, but to create rich, meaningful relationships. To enable me to do my part in making this world a better place.  To protect me from injury.  It’s constantly evolving, and I am always looking for ways to refine it up, take it higher.

I love my personal code.  I love when I meet others and I can see, whether spoken or most often unspoken, that they have a personal code they live by.  I don’t know what it is, but it makes me trust them more, want to help them more, want to know them more, want to talk to them more, want to tell them more, want to give them more.

I especially love the derivation of the word code.

It originally came from the Latin word caudex which literally meant tree trunk and then came to mean book made up of wooden tablets covered with wax for writing.

I can imagine myself, if I had lived back then, with a wooden tablet covered in wax and a small, sharp stick, gazing into the sky for inspiration, writing my principles down, discovering and articulating the laws of my life.

May your own code serve you well in your pursuit of life, liberty, happiness and service to others.  I would love to read what yours is all about.

Love,

Ingrid