Code of Honor: Warrior Mind Podcast #491

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In this episode of the Warrior Mind Podcast I’m going to discuss the importance of having a personal Code of Honor and how it helps direct our life’s actions.

How To Develop a Personal Code of Honor

Have you ever wondered how you can develop a personal code of honor? Developing a personal code of honor is a significant thing to do for yourself. Essentially, you put in writing the philosophies and ideas that are your nature. A personal code of honor allows you to commit to these philosophies because you believe in them.

You can look at your code of honor document each day to remind yourself of what you believe and to encourage yourself to abide by what you believe.

Now the real question is how you can develop your code of honor. Developing is quite simple, but it takes time and requires thought on your part.

The first step is to take a close look at your life. Whom do you believe yourself to be? Ask yourself how a friend would respond if they were asked to describe you. Would someone say you are kind and compassionate? Put down all the traits that your relatives and friends may have said to your paper.

The second step is to put thought into what you believe. Ask yourself what your ethical beliefs are. These are the beliefs that shape your life by influencing your decision making. Questioning why you believe in them is not important at this point. Just ensure you write as many of your ethical belief as you can think of.

The next step is to look at how you relate to people. Think about how you deal with family members, friends, workmates, and even strangers. In addition, consider the various places where live, work and play. Is there anything related to honor that has a negative impact on how you relate with people? List the changes you would like to make. This list should involve things as obvious as arguing with family to things of little importance such as gossip.

The next step is where you question why you believe in what you believe. This is an essential step as it helps you establish how important each of your belief is to you. The source of most beliefs is religion. Next to each belief, list the verses or teachings that each of your belief is based on.

At this point you know who you are, your beliefs, and the reasons behind your beliefs. With all this information, you can now develop a personal code of honor. This last step is not as hard as it might sound. However, it will take you time, as you have to decide what is important enough to include in your code of honor, and what is not important enough to include.

Enjoy this podcast on your code of honor

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A Personal Code of Honor Has Three Parts:

The first section is the purpose. Here is where you write why you are writing the personal code of honor. Are you writing it to adjust your behavior or is its purpose inspirational? Answering the question of the purpose of your code of honor allows you to develop the philosophy behind it. The purpose, as well as the code of honor itself, should match your needs and help you become a better human being in the society.

The second section is “I Will” of the personal code of honor. Remember where you wrote whom you are based on what you believe you are and what other people perceive you to be? Go through that list and write down your aspirations. Write your ‘I Wills’ based on the traits you possess now and those you aspire to possess.

The third section includes the reasons for your beliefs and the rules you would like to follow when dealing with other people. You wrote all this information in the third and fourth steps of developing a personal code of honor. This section is labeled ‘whys’. Remember to include the religious teaching your whys are based on using the guidance of various bible verses.

In conclusion, you are done with the first draft of your code of honor. Therefore, you may now refine, improve and edit it to fit with the changes in your life. The most important part is to follow it. Why go through all the trouble of writing the code of honor if you are not going to follow it?

Seven Virtues of Bushido

1. Justice or Rectitude

This is all about making sure that we have the right way when we make a decision. That we have the power to make a decision quickly. It is about making sure that we do not become indecisive and that our decisions are made and based on the right reasons.

2. Courage

This is about making sure that what we do is right and that we have the courage to do the right thing and not just what people think we should do. If we are raised in a particular way, we think in a way that we belief in. this is about making sure we do what we believe in and have the courage to do so.

3. Benevolence or Mercy

As a warrior, the Samurai have the power to kill. However, benevolence is about making sure that you are balanced in how you think. It is about making sure that you also have sympathy and mercy at the right time. For the Samurai it was about making sure you fought for the right reason and that if you had to kill someone, you did it for the right reason and your belief but that you also make sure that if there was no need to kill you would have mercy and be sympathetic.

4. Respect

It is important that in everything they believe, they must have respect and be polite in everything.  The way they live their life meant they must be respectful of their elders, they must respect life, respect others beliefs.

5. Honesty

Honesty was very important, as they believe that being honest in everything you do gives you respect and means you can be trusted.

6. Honor

To live and die with honor was very important to the Samurai. Everything they did was honorable which meant they did everything in what they believed with honor.

7. Loyalty

Loyalty was probably one of the very important parts of what they did. They treated each other like family and would do everything within their power to protect and help their samurai warriors. Loyalty was important because this means they can trust their warriors and know they would be loyal to whatever they needed to do and not worry about loosing their respect.

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