The Golden Rule – What You Don’t Want Someone To Do To You …

We all know the Golden Rule, we have impressed it on us, but we do not always apply it:  “What you don’t want someone to do to you, don’t do it to anyone else.”

A deep sentence, with an educational and moral background. But when it really matters, we often don’t act on it.

Sometimes we are not aware that we are doing something that we have previously criticized. Perhaps this is human nature. Maybe we can’t turn a blind eye to something we don’t agree with, only we realize it afterwards.

Is Man Incoherent?

One of the things I personally can’t stand is the incoherence. And it has exactly to do with this fundamental principle. If you don’t like being interfered with in your life, why do you do it with others? A simple example that will be followed by many more.

It is important to be aware that people are constantly changing. What seems right to me today may no longer be so tomorrow. Maybe I want to get married today and not tomorrow. This is accepted because we are in an evolutionary process, we are maturing and changing. The experiences determine our life and change it. We never stop learning, just as our evolution never stops. That is why the Golden Rule has no defined content.

But what happens if I think a thing, but then do something that opposes it? This is not evolution, this is not change or maturity. This is pure incoherence. Of course we can be incoherent, nobody denies us this possibility, after all we are not tied to anything and not obliged to do anything. But think about your emotional stability.

If it upsets me to hang out with incoherent people, then the incoherent person himself must have an infinite collection of mixed up ideas in their head with no clear thought to be found. Such a person hardly seems able to express and defend his or her own thoughts or actions.

I don’t want this, but I’ll do it anyway

Incoherent people often do things that they don’t want to happen to them, but how can you think that way? It’s very selfish and just plain impossible. If you don’t want them to lie to you but you do lie to others, you will inevitably attract a bunch of lies. It’s not just about not liking what they do to you, but that you will always be attracted to what you do to them.

It’s not just about attracting bad things to yourself when you do bad things. It also works the other way around:  If you are positive yourself, you will attract something positive. Maybe you weren’t aware of that yet. But the truth is, the more positive you are, the better you will be. The fact that you do things that you don’t like when others do them to you may be related to a wound from the past when they caused you great pain. That will be over today.

• Don’t lie or let others lie to you. Don’t accept a lie just to get revenge later. Go for transparency.
• Don’t let anyone make you feel bad or do the same to others. Maybe it even feels good? If they treat you badly, don’t pay them back the same way.
• Surrounding yourself with positive people and if they are different from you will help you to let go of what you don’t want people to do to you. Nourish yourself by the good people, who do not wish anyone bad, and who act coherently.
• Remove the friends from your life who aren’t real at all. In this way you avoid having to always do the same thing to them what they do to you and what hurts you.
• Don’t hate, because hate is something only you allow yourself to do. Hate only brings suffering into your life, but you deserve to be happy.

There are many situations that encourage us to do what we would not like ourselves. Be it out of revenge, hate or other motives. But does that make you happy? The answer is no. And how do you change that? As we have seen, if you don’t like your own actions yourself, then let it be. Look for positive people who will bring you good things into your life.

Maintain emotional balance, get to know yourself, and don’t let your life be full of incoherence.  Always repaying others the same way doesn’t make you happy. And not only that, you will get it back yourself.

Images courtesy of Duy Huynh and Claudia Tremblay