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Principles in Life19/11/2011Contact us

It has always become a question to most? How do I balance my life? Does my day feel like a system overload? Do you feel that how much of effort you put into a day it just doesn’t seem to make any huge significance?
 
Well it is the same thought that generally runs in the mind of so many people around the world. Is it the way the world was designed?? Not at all, it’s the way we have designed our life style unfortunately. We tend to use the wrong methods in progressing in life?

Have you come across the perfect individual, who just seems to do everything but yet seems so balanced with time and life? Most say that they got the special touch, some kind of God given talent to do everything right. 

Well that’s not the correct answer. Like always God deals with everyone equally. But these individuals do practice something magical? Yes a popular secret. What is it you may ask? …… The answer is Principle’s. Oh surprised! … Yep that’s all it takes, simple old principles.  

You may ask, but Garwin I already have principles in my life. Well we must ask, is it the right principles for the required results. Well I have analyzed many successful people in Business, Sports, Politics and it is clearly evident they all had a set of principles that they never compromised on. Yes the difference is they never compromise! Go back and ask your selves, how many times have I compromised on my principles? The answer I m sure is many.   

What are the principles we should balance so meticulously in order to gain the best results in life. Well let me give you 5 important principles you should never compromise on in order for you to become more successful in your Career, Personal Life etc.

1. Health

Do we seriously look after our health? Especially you workaholics out there, all you can envision is a warm comfortable bed after a long days work isn’t it ;-) Or we have our meals at odd times, sometimes skipping breakfast or lunch. Unhealthy diets, no proper work outs invariably bring out lethargy. That’s the number one cause for ill health which adds more pressure to your ever increasing schedule. 

So as a Principle, ensure you work out at least thrice a week and make time to consume healthy meals. This will be the start of focusing on a life governed by certain principles. It will not only make you fitter to battle your busy schedule it will also create a clearer mind which will make decisions that much faster. The time you will gain will be immense.

2. Procrastination

This is the biggest demon of all bad habits because it’s the easiest to do. When it’s a very important assignment that needs to be completed and you don’t have the confidence or motivation to proceed, “Procrastination”, the greatest gift created by the Devil himself helps you to conveniently walk away from your responsibility. 

Look back and try to count the number of times procrastination may have helped you? Handful, I presume.  Now count the times of missed opportunities because of it. …. Countless isn’t it? So if we know we’ve more to lose and little to gain through procrastination, why do it then? The simple answer is we are afraid to take the risk. In any situation, by trying to make something happen always creates the chance of failure and as humans that is what we try to run away from. Procrastination helps the cause but only temporarily. Reality is that you lose so much on the long run.

So as another important principle, don’t procrastinate at anything in life. Follow the old adage “what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger”. Next time prior to procrastination, ask yourself what have I got to lose?

3. Stick to promises.  

I don’t believe you! You always break promises…. In your life have you ever heard those words? Many people knowingly or unknowingly break promises all the time and take it for granted that it’s ok to do so. But we don’t realize the more we get accustomed to breaking a promise the more people perceive you as a person who “cannot be trusted”. 

Yes, we have said it ourselves so many times in our lives; “oh he / she can’t be trusted with anything”. But we fail to realize that sometimes people look at us in the same way. 

So as a principle, always ensure you think before you make a promise and once committed make sure you do whatever it takes to fulfill the promise. Remember in many circumstance that you are not able to commit to a promise and it is important, you keep the person/s informed that you will not be able to fulfill the promise (state the reason too). They will surely understand and respect you. But remember this should always be the last option. 

Once you start practicing this principle, you will see that people will start to trust you and turn to you whenever they need a person to trust. Isn’t that a great designation to have? Mr. or Mrs. Reliable.

4. Never compromise on the most important for the most convenient.

Your friends are meeting at the pub but you have to finish an urgent project at work, you come up with the most innovative lie to get of doing overtime on the project. After the booze and fun is over, you report to work the next morning only to be overwhelmed with the already delayed project. Your head hurts, your sleepy and you boss is in a really bad mood cause you’re behind schedule, oh how you wished you could go back to the previous evening and change things.
Has a situation similar to the above happened to you? I m sure many of us nod in agreement. The simple way to reduce stress and all the anxiety is to put what’s important in life first before anything else. Because some day / somehow it will come back to haunt you. 

As a principle in life, always define the most important tasks in life and do your utmost on completing it on time. This not only gives us peace of mind but create great opportunities in the future. People are going to see your high values and will respect you, this alone separates the good from the great.

5. Punctuality    

This of many principles bares the greatest significance. Why? Because people can evaluate in seconds your principles of time.  Think of this situation, it’s the usual weekly meeting at your office but this time your CEO happens to make a surprise visit wanting to maybe get a better idea of the candidates for the promotions for next year. Now you know as always it’s the usual blah blah meeting so you walk in 15 mins late. What would you think the first impression of your CEO would be? 

We may think that the little things don’t need to have the importance, but as principle you should practice punctuality with absolute consistency. Through consistency people start to identify you as a rock of reliability. You could be really bad at many things but by just maintaining your punctuality, around 50% of your overall efficiency is already evaluated by your observers. Yes it’s true, if you’re not a punctual type try it out for a period of time and look at how people start to perceive you. 

So as the final principle, this should not be forgotten. Punctuality means many things such as finalizing reports on time , reporting to work or meetings on time,  been on time to meet friends etc. Do not forget that punctuality is not a one of thing, as a principle it should be absolutely consistent.