December 23, 2020
3 Life Principles
Ray Dalio, founder and Co-CIO of Bridgewater Associates, has this to say about principles, "Your values are what you consider important, literally what you “value.” Principles are what allow you to live a life consistent with those values. Principles connect your values to your actions; they are beacons that guide your actions, and help you successfully deal with the laws of reality."
Here are 3 helpful life principles I've learned in 2020:
"The intersection of truth and care is the heart of all communication.
Niceness is harmful if it makes you unwilling to speak the truth.
Bluntness is harmful if you speak the truth without love.
True kindness is what gets people's attention." (Share this on Twitter)
"Your message is loudest when it’s lived out in your day-to-day life.
Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone is an example.
Most have good intentions, but few make the impact they intend.
Simply do what you say and say what you do, and people will follow." (Share this on Twitter)
"Don't buy the lie that a mistake defines who you are.
No one sentence communicates the whole page.
No one chapter tells the whole story.
No one mistake defines who we are.
Hope always gives us the ability to turn the page." (Share this on Twitter)
Bonus
As a bonus, here are 3 of my favorite reads from 2020:
On Fatherhood:
"And why does humanity inwardly boo the father who punts on his responsibility to his children and simply walks away? Because we know at the core of our being, to be a good father means we are present. We show up. You don't have to sit in a house of worship to know this...We cannot lead without showing up, being present, and walking in relationship. As I've sat with people suffering from fatherhood wounds over the years, the fountainhead to their frustration was rarely tied to dad's incompetence or lack of money, but to his absence. Showing up is most of the battle." — Bryan Loritts, The Dad Difference
On Leadership:
"Every good-to-great company had Level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years.
Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves.
Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company.
Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse.
Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did just the opposite—they looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out the window to assign blame for disappointing results." — Jim Collins, Good to Great
On Faith:
"The 'real' world has little room for a God of sparrows and children. To it, Jesus can only seem 'otherworldly' — a good-hearted person out of touch with reality. He is like a cheerleader who continues to shout, 'We are going to win,' though the score is 98 to 3 against us in the last minute of the game.
When this cheerleading approach to the 'real world' triumphs among those who profess Christ, they may then have faith in faith but will have little faith in God. For God and his world are just not 'real' to them. They may believe in believing but not be able to rely on God — like many in our current culture who love love but in practice are unable to love real people." — Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy