Personal precepts

This is one idea that was inspired by an incredible book (and movie) called Wonder. In it, the protagonist’s teacher starts every new month off with a precept - a rule to live by, and that could guide one’s behavior. The initial one he writes up is “When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”

(You can see all of them on this fan wiki).

I spoke to my kids about their personal precepts, and we came up with some together. I was surprised at how insightful the underlying ideas were, even if their articulation was what you’d expect from a five-year-old. My daughter basically summed up Stoic philosophy with something along the lines of “I’m OK with whatever will happen.”

We’ve since revisited them, and even updated them. But the act of discussing them and documenting them - of making the idea that we can have ‘rules’ to live by - will hopefully serve them well, even if the content of that rule changes over time.

Maybe this is something we all could benefit from?