Developing our philosophy, determining how we should best live, is a core objective in our lives. We should each build our own, drawing from inspirations and role models that have gone before us. Living a life focused on serving others is an example of a philosophy.

Principles are more specific pillars of the philosophy. Multiple principles brought together comprise our philosophy. Honesty and integrity for example are principles.

Finally, tactics are the day to day activities and mechanisms used to live in alignment with our principles to live out our philosophy. To facilitate honesty, you might implement a tactic of pausing when asked a question, to avoid a quick but not fully truthful automatic and easy answer. A thoughtful pause to give the space to craft a more true answer.

It’s easy to go our whole lives without really taking the time to discover and define our philosophy, codify our principles, and implement tactics. Let’s not do what’s easy.