On My Mind – Principiis – 7/28/2018

**Warning – This Post and those that follow in what I hope to make an occasional series is not going to be of interest to many – likely most of you.  I’m taking the opportunity to write for an audience of One – Myself – for a change and see where it goes.  This is more along the lines of a journal entry than anything else but hey – my Blog – my Rules.  I hope those of you who have continued to read and follow won’t be put off by something a bit more personal.  I’ll get back to the fun stuff soon enough 🙂**

I’ve found myself at a bit of an impasse with respect to my reading and writing this week.  I’ve finished and reviewed “Imperial Twilight” – an exceptional book – and moved on to “Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom” – also an excellent book but a more challenging read – the reasons for which I’ll speak to once I’m finally done and ready to review.  The fact that I’m still less than halfway through “Autumn” lies at the root of this problem – the weekend is here and I don’t yet have a finished book to serve as the subject of a review.  I’ve filled the gap a bit with the post on “Annihilation”.  I could cobble together an “On The Shelf” post but – to be honest – my TBR pile has been growing at a ridiculously fast pace since I decided to put my time into these two Stephen R. Platt books and I wouldn’t know where to start.  I could try to do something creative for a “Scribbles” post but I don’t have anything struggling to make its way onto the page right now.  I’m a bit dead-ended when it comes to content but I still feel the need to write.

As a result, I’m going to do something a bit unusual and – potentially – a bit risky.  I’m going to try and write a column or two about something that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about – a challenge that I would hope most people struggle with in a constructive way on a day to day basis – how to lead an ethical life in this all too often overwhelmingly chaotic time.

At 57, I almost certainly have more time to look back on than I have ahead of me.  That’s not a source of sadness – my hope is that I have many fun, fulfilling, rewarding years ahead.  Nevertheless, as I’ve started to creep towards that 7th decade, I’ve found it almost impossible not to think back across the years and all the decisions and all the life changes that came before.  I wind up taking inventory of all the things I’ve done that bring satisfaction as well as those that leave me with regrets.  Overall, this has been a reasonably positive exercise for me.  I’ve made some colossal mistakes over the years but none of them have been fatal, all of them have been instructive and I feel like I’ve grown from each and every one.  I’ve been fortunate in my tendency to fall forward.  Thankfully, I feel like the credit side of my ledger is a whole lot longer than the debit side.

I don’t think that’s coincidental.  I credit it – to some extent – to the fact that I do, on most occasions – think as deeply and as critically as I can about the decisions I’m asked or required to make.  That wasn’t always the case – my approach to life and the challenge of living a decent life was far less clearly defined in my 20s and 30s – at times in my 40s.  Gradually, however – over the course of all those years – I’ve found that things have become a bit clearer – better paths have become a bit easier to find – decisions have become just a bit less challenging – and while I’m completely capable of proving myself wrong about this on any given day – the results seem to indicate that I’m getting better at it.

One of the many things that’s helped along the way has been my ability to build up a set of guiding principles – rules of the road – reference material that I can always go to at a time of challenge – things that help to provide clarity.  Over the years, I’ve boiled this stuff down into a pretty condensed nugget.  I’ve also found work done by others that helps to embody those principles and that helps me to keep them top of mind.  For the last 10 – 15 years – no matter where I’ve worked – whenever I find myself occupying a new space – the first thing I’ve always done is to hang a series of six texts / documents / quotes on my new wall – my rule book.  I do it both because I always want that material present as a reminder but also because it helps to define me for those who I’ve had the privilege of leading.  They’re also with me at home.

Strangely enough, as important as each of those six references has become to me over time – I’ve never put pen to paper and organized my thoughts around the question of why.  So…in order to clarify and codify my thoughts and in order to serve as an outlet for my urge to write at those times when I’m at a loss for a subject or for inspiration, I’m going to take some time to explore each one in a dedicated post.  I’m going to fill that blank scroll at the top of the page with words that have always been with me but which I’ve never written down.

Here’s the list of my six – my guide book:

• IF by Rudyard Kipling
• Cowboy Values from The Center For Cowboy Ethics and Leadership
• The Man In The Arena from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt on April 23, 1910
• The Six Mistakes Of Man by Cicero
• Feed The Right Wolf, a native American parable
• Live A Good Life, a quote from Marcus Aurelius

Over the course of the next few months, when time permits, I’m going to try and tackle each one in a post – to finally put into words why these six have always been so important to me and why they somehow always seem to provide the guidance I need.  My hope is to start with If tomorrow.  I’ll always be clear at the beginning what’s coming so that you won’t waste time on something that I’m doing primarily for myself.

PS:  The title of the post – Principiis – is Latin and translates roughly to principles.  If I’m wrong on that, I know that either my son or my step daughter – both of whom have developed a decent familiarity with Latin over the last 6 years – will be all too happy to let me know.