What principles define how you live?

I’m going to keep things a bit simpler here and link back to a post I made back in May. In that post I talk about some words I live by.

The particular one I want to bring back up is my sort of “modified” Golden Rule.

Do unto others as you would have done unto you if you were acting the way they are towards you.

Bit of a mouthful and doesn’t really roll off the tongue, but I like it. It makes you think.

The reason I choose to live by this modified rule is as a safety measure of sorts for self-respect and self-esteem.

Kindness begets kindness, hate begets hate, things like that are part of the basics of the Golden Rule, but why should you show kindness to someone who is so clearly not going to reciprocate that kindness? If all I ever did was walk around being kind to people, then I’m likely to get manipulated and walked all over. So, instead, taking the Golden Rule a level deeper, I would treat them with the due respect I would like to receive should I be caught acting the way they are at that time.

If someone is acting like a complete asshole, I’m not going to just play nice and show them kindness, but I’m not going to be a complete asshole in return. I’ll be relatively polite but direct them away from myself without escalating the situation so that they don’t drag me down to their level because if I were in their shoes that’s how I would hope others treat me in return.

If someone is in need of help, I’d still help them to the best of my abilities, because I know that if I were in their position then I would probably want help as well. Provided that they don’t take advantage of the help and turn into a never ending problem of needing help. Then I’d do my best to help them get stable and make sure they’re able to take care of themselves beyond that situation, to be self-sufficient, because that’s what I would like to see happen for myself.

It should be that simple all the time. That’s what I believe and that’s how I try to live my life.