Life's three basic principles

Life’s three basic principles.

Tim Connor

Yes, there are hundreds if not thousands of life principles, but I only have a few hundred words to share what I believe are the most important three in life and they are:

-You reap what you sow.

-You become what you think.

-You attract what you project.

I could also go in a spiritual direction when it comes to life’s fundamental principles but I will let you interpret these from any perspective you choose.  But, for the record, I believe all of life’s basic principles are grounded in Scripture and to ignore or avoid this basic premise is a serious mistake. 

So, now that I am out there – you can choose to continue, move on to your next task and/or interpret the following three in any way you feel comfortable.  But keep in mind that one of my life’s missions is to get under people’s skin and make them feel a bit uncomfortable with the status quo, conventional wisdom or staying stuck.  And I have to tell you that to date I seem to be doing a relatively good job!

And here are the details;

You reap what you sow.

Regardless of whether it’s your finances, relationships, career, business or life in general this is one of the basics of life that I am sure you have learned or are learning now.  We can’t escape consequences and all consequences are the result of prior actions, decisions, choices and behavior.

Why do we sow what we don’t want to reap?  Well, there are hundreds of great books that address this topic so let me just say that we are human, we are often in denial, we do stupid stuff and we think we are above the consequences that life uses to teach us to live better, wiser and stronger.

It doesn’t matter how long you have been here, your education or circumstances – we all do stupid stuff sooner or later and the result – well we reap what we have planted.

If you plant green beans in your garden and you think you are going to get corn you might want to rethink your approach to gardening. The same is true of every area of life – you are currently reaping what you have sown whether positives; wealth, health, success, a positive legacy and reputation or the opposite of all of these.  Don’t like what you are reaping? Then start sowing different stuff – it’s that simple.

You become what you think.

For hundreds of years’ experts have been telling us that we become what we think about.  Well, recent research on mind function has finally given us the statistics and reasons why this concept is true.  I won’t bore you with the details but I will give you one very critical stat.  Over 95% of a person’s thoughts in any given day are negative, pessimistic or self-invalidating.  Over 60 years ago a book called – Optimism, the biology of Hope, by a medical doctor and Psychiatrist, Lionel Tiger laid out the facts that have been finally proven.

So are you – unhappy, broke, sick, alone, stressed etc. stop looking outside yourself for the answers or solutions and start looking in the mirror.  Change your thoughts and you can change your life.

You attract what you project.

Mental projection is a simple yet complicated concept so let me lay it out in very brief terms.

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. It incorporates blame shifting.  According to some research, the projection of one's unconscious qualities onto others is a common process in everyday life.

I am not a big fan of formal definitions so let me put this in my own terms.

When we project certain traits, behaviors or attitudes to the outside world we are basically saying this is you and not me but in the end the reality is that it IS me and NOT you.  Why do people project?  What do they project?

Well they project because they can’t admit or accept personal flaws, behaviors or attitudes.  They have blind spots.  They project everything that they feel makes them less than perfect or desirable as a human.

That’s it folks – my take on three of life’s biggest principles.