KEYS TO TOP PERFORMANCE

PRINCIPLES – Your Life’s Boundaries

Principles are personal set of rules one puts in place to serve as checks and balances to his behaviour and actions. Principles are not determined by an external source of force and imposed on a person. Every individual who wants to distinguish him or her self in life must have a set of personal rules and regulations that govern his/her behaviour.

The set of rules though not enforceable in any judicial court may sometimes be more binding on the individual than legislative and judicial laws of the land. This is because the individual who is to obey the laws is lawmaker and law enforcer himself. The only referee or judge here is the individual’s own conscience. The motivation for keeping these rules is therefore not subject to the reward of obedience or the fear of punishment for violating the law. Keeping and living by these principles is a matter of conscience and conviction.

At the root of self-control and self-discipline is personal conviction. You cannot be self-controlled or disciplined without having in place personal set of rules and regulations to govern your behaviour and the way you do things.
The good book says in Proverbs 16:32 that

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

This in simple, literal interpretation would mean that it is far easier to war with physical weapons and military or political power and take territories than it is to exercise restraint in the case of a personal habit or personality trait. You can easily force someone to succumb to you than you can do your own body. If it were not so, people suffering from addictions in our world today would not be struggling to be freed from the grip of these non-living forces.

Conquest and self-control within are better than conquest of enemies without. Many conquerors have subdued nations and yet have been slaves to their own passions. Alexander conquered the world, but was a slave to intemperate anger. In a fit of anger, he slew Clytus, his best and most loved friend, and regretted it afterwards.

The habit-forming nature of the human body coupled with the strong self-will of the Soul makes self-control and self-discipline almost a Herculean task for many people. This is the reason why we need personal principles in life, which will guard against being entangled with some of these destiny choking habits and lifestyles.

As mentioned above, principles are a matter of conscience and personal conviction, which means, sometimes principles may not necessarily deal with issues of legality or morality. They normally go beyond what is generally accepted as legally or morally right. You go beyond obeying laws and become a law to yourself.
When you have a high calling in life, you simply decide you are not going to live your life just as every other person does. You may then have to decide you are not going to do certain things anymore, and you are not going to go to some places anymore, you are not going to keep certain companies anymore, not because they are illegal or immoral, but simply because you want to have a standard you want to attain in life.

The Apostle Paul puts it in a more graphical picture for us when he said
1 Cor. 6:12
All things are LAWFUL unto me, but all things are not EXPEDIENT: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1 Cor. 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

For example, there is nothing unlawful or immoral about watching television from morning until evening, but how will that be of benefit to a man or woman with a destiny who knows he/she is on a high-level assignment on earth and time is short. Such a person would have to choose between watching television and pursuing purpose and destiny.

Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, in their Babylonian captivity were entitled to royal dishes by the edict of the king, but by conviction of who they were and the destiny they had, chose rather to settle for herbage and dietary meals to avoid contaminating their spirits and souls with the rather sumptuous and palatable but pagan food of the palace.

Men and women of this generation including us, the so called men and women of God are busy polluting our spirits and souls with such abandoned recklessness and unrestrained alacrity with all sorts of lifestyles and habits all in the name of breakthrough and modernism. To be a top performer in whatever endeavour of life you are called to, you need to be self-disciplined. This however, does not come through cheap talk, because it is not a matter of mouth talk but an issue of strong personal conviction and personal principles.

There are things I cannot do again with my life and my time because of the path I have chosen to walk in, even if nobody is there to see or reprimand me. It is a matter of personal decision and choice.