Decisions To Live By

A decision to live by is a decision that you make which dictates how you live your life. This is not an easy decision like "I'll have a burger for lunch"; it's a hard decision Once you have made this decision, other questions arise which become issues for you. Just say you decided that God does not exist, you might then think "how do I decide what is moral and what is not?".

Examples (which potentially affect only oneself):

thinking life is sacred, therefore I will eat only vegetables
all life is sacred, therefore I will eat only fruit (which is produced, in a sense, to be eaten, and will not harm the original organism)
all life is sacred, period; I cannot find a means to continue my existence (pathological)
The purpose of life is to serve others, therefore I will dedicate my life to furthering the condition of my fellow beings
The purpose of life is to discover unity with god, therefore I will dedicate my life to discovering god in all things
The purpose of life is to dominate all things; therefore I will do so
The purpose of life is to be smart, so I will be as smart as I can while pointing out all stupidity in the world.

Making a decision to live by gives you a foundation upon which you stand while you make other choices in your life.

I suspect that most DecisionsToLiveBy are moral/ethical/religious decisions, because they are the ones which are least based on facts and are consequently more personal. -- JohnFarrell

Especially controversial examples which may impact how you think other people should or should not behave:

"an unborn baby's right to life is more important than the mother's right to determine what happens to her body"
"God does/does not exist".
"A leap of faith on my part is noble, despite my level of understanding of each actual situation, I'll stand by my generalization."

  - Peter Pan (paraphrased)

Careful. A decision is made based on available data. If the data changes, it may be well to revisit your decisions.

Decisions determine vectors. LifeVectors, in fact. Remember, you get to change your mind when you get new information.

see DecisionsToLiveByDiscussions

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