In addition to connecting you with your power, courage also brings power to your connections. When you exercise your courage, you feel more connected to your true self. Your bonds with others grow deeper as well because your interactions are centered in truth, love, and power, not in falsehood, apathy, or timidity. Over time, these connections become so strong that they elevate you to a new level of awareness. At this level, you consciously commit yourself to a principle-centered life. This commitment is called honor.
Honor is not loyalty to an individual or group. Such allegiance comes from superficial bonds and familiarity, but honor connects with genuine unconditional love in a way that transcends individual identity. Honor is the place where power and love reconnect with truth.
The guiding force of honor is your conscience, which is your intuitive ability to discern right from wrong. Right actions are aligned with truth, love, and power. Wrong actions are out of alignment with these principles. A sense of honor enables you to perceive the difference.
Honor recognizes that service to self and service to others are the same thing. They cannot be otherwise. The health of the body and the health of its cells are one. For the body to be aligned with truth, love, and power, the cells must also be so aligned. When you connect with the deepest parts of yourself, you’re connecting with your truth, your love, and your power. When you connect deeply with others, you’re connecting with their truth, their love, and their power. Honor acknowledges that these inner and outer connections are the same.
To act with honor is to act in accordance with truth, love, and power. When driven by honor, you take action because you care—you care so much that you can’t settle for inaction. You commit to a principle-centered life, recognizing that upholding there principles is your scared duty. This duty feels right, does right, and is right. This is the place where heart and mind harmoniously agree, where logic and intuition can find no discord.
When you’re deeply connected with truth, love, and power, you’re driven to action. The more deeply you connect, the more motivated you become. The most powerful motivator of all is love, but it takes tremendous courage to honor that simple truth.
When you feel lazy and unmotivated, the simple reason is that you’re feeling disconnected. You’ve fallen out of alignment with truth, love, and power. When you recognize that you’re in this state, stop and reconnect with the real you. Remember who you are. Reconnect with what excites you. Revisit those times in your life when you were on fire—not because of external events, but because you were aligned with your truth, your love, and your power. Turn your gaze within and ask yourself: Where is the path with a heart, and what can I do to honor that path right now? Whatever answer you come up with, summon the courage to take immediate action. Growl ferociously if you think it will help, but get yourself into motion no matter what.
* Source: Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina