From the previous article, we touched on the subject explaining that "what we presently are is a result of the condition and conditioning of the past. Therefore, by remaining what we are, we cannot become who we desire to be. By so realising this fact, we come to the conclusion that the battle is within us and not outside us".

In everything in life, there are levels towards an ultimate purpose. In everything in life, anything that is big was once small. In everything in life, there is a beginning, life is full of beginnings, and they are presented every day and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small, and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the most important things in life.

Having explained that phenomena, let's look at the battle within and not outside us. There is a phenomenon that explains that we need to design the whole before the parts, else the parts will embarrass the whole. Begin with the end in mind, see yourself who you want to be, what you want to achieve and be seen in public eye, and then work backwards. In so doing, you give yourself the tools required to build the whole, else without that vision, the parts come from without and may embarrass the ultimate whole.

The tools are plentiful, these being principles, values, morals and ethics including connections or interdependency with others around you to achieve your purpose. The most important of them all being principles.

Evidently, most people do not have a comprehensive understanding of the distinction between values, principles, ethics, and morals. Observe any successful individuals and what sustains their success, and you'll notice that their principles are in order and upheld.

Principles - we all use them (sometimes without knowing it). The dictionary defines them this way:

1. A basic truth, law, or assumption: the principles of democracy.

2. A rule or standard, especially of good behaviour: a man of principle.

3. The collectivity of moral or ethical standards or judgments: a decision based on principle rather than expediency.

A principle is a fundamental truth, an absolute; a comprehensive law or doctrine. If you have a principle to guide you in moral behaviour, then it is an absolute. So the best place to start is with your principles. Pen down your principles and look at them to read, understand and "re-understand". Say them audibly... this is the law of autosuggestion that commits to the subconscious. You may feel it is of no use, but remember the subconscious is a sponge that absorbs what you consciously and repeatedly say to it. Whatever the conscious does, the subconscious plays out without your concern as this is a thought processes that happen outside consciousness. As Peter Dayan, a theoretical neuroscientist at University College London puts it "Most importantly, the subconscious isn't the dumb cousin of the conscious, but rather a cousin with different skills".

Kate Douglas author of The subconscious Mind: Your unsung Hero, correctly and clearly explains better that "once you achieve expertise in a skill such as driving, typing or playing golf, the fourth system, the habitual controller, comes into its own. Although we consciously learn to do these things, with experience they become second nature and we can do them automatically - in fact, once this happens, conscious analysis actually inhibits performance".

You have a large store of possibilities. The subconscious mind makes possibilities realities. It supplies everything necessary for accomplishment; it selects the tools and instructs you in how to use them. It makes you understand the situation. Any decision you'll ever make is purified through the principles and values you hold... see the point of establishing principles, values and morals? If you have unclarified ethics, the subconscious mind will pick up the closest that you hold dear, which in some circumstances is not desirable to yourself when you think it through, but alas, the subconscious will still have to act and bring it forth.

This my friends is the first level and reason why you need to clearly define your principles and absolutely stick to them, remember that any of your principles that you break, allows you to be worse off than you started. Bear in mind the adage that a man who stands for nothing falls for anything.

Never abrogate your principles for others and your own convenience is my advice to you.