My overall philosophy of life is based on American philosopher Will Durant’s definition of ethics, which I first read about in 1975. He defines ethics as, “The Search for Ideal Behavior”. This is a very interesting distillation of a lot of philosophies. Will Durant and his wife Ariel spent from 1935 to 1975 writing a 10,000 word, eleven volume book set called The Story of Civilization which described, fundamentally, all the philosophies in the world, from the beginning of whenever philosophy was recognized. Durant’s distillation has been incredibly helpful to me over the years, perhaps his idea will be helpful to you.
My general philosophy for effective, purposeful communication that reduces contention and adversarial circumstances requires such communication to be:
1. Calm
2. Compassionate
3. Constructive
4. Empathetic
5. Ethical
6. Helpful
7. Peaceful
8. Honorable
9. Positive
10. Sensible
11. Sensitive
12. Simple
13. Sustainable
14. Trust building
15. Useful
Strive to avoid and even eradicate negative language and phrases that are the sources of all:
1. Agitation
2. Bad news
3. Confrontation
4. Confusion
5. Divorces
6. Errors
7. Fights
8. Humiliation
9. Irritations
10. Lies
11. Misinterpretation
12. Misleading
13. Misunderstandings
14. Trouble
15. Vengeance
16. Vilification
17. Wars
Failure to intentionally make simple, sensible, sensitive, effective, and purposeful language choices always earns self-induced, sometimes irreversible trouble.
Paste this on your mirror, maybe on your desk.
Build your own lists.
Wage Peace Every Day.
As you approach any decision, for any reason, make that decision pass the Will Durant test, “Is this ideal behavior?” If not, find something that is.
