Page 129 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

STEP 5: IDENTIFY YOUR PASSIONS AND VALUES 117

People in this category include the social workers, the caretakers,
the assistants, the full-time parents, the nurses and doctors, and
the Mother Teresas of the world. If your primary goal in life is to
help or serve others, then service is your motivating value.

System for Living/Principles

As Ralph Waldo Trine said, “There are many who are living far
below their possibilities because they are continually handing
over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in
the world? Then be yourself. Be true to the highest within your
soul and then allow yourself to be governed by no customs or con-
ventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not founded
on principle.” This pretty much sums up the belief of the highly
principled. If you would die before sacrificing your principles, or
if you have a structured or rigid system for living, then this is one
of your hidden drivers. For some people, it takes the form of a reli-
gion, which they use as a doctrine or code to live by. Or it may be
that you are an environmentalist, a yogi, or a vegan, and this prac-
tice informs the choices you make about how to live.
People who are highly principled will fight for their beliefs
and may dedicate their lives to spreading the word. Gandhi is
among the most famous exemplars.
A missionary who goes into danger-
ous or disease-ridden areas to convert
The deed is all, not the
the natives would have to be strongly
glory.
principled to risk his or her life for this
purpose. On a more mundane level, you —JOHANN WOLFGANG
VON GOETHE
may just be the “green” one who recy-
cles everything and can’t help but look
down on those who don’t. There is a
tendency among those motivated by their principles to be judg-
mental of those who don’t follow suit. They sincerely believe that
if everyone were to do adopt their chosen system, the world would
be a better place.