Paradoxical Commandments

I found an edited version of these on a blog I was reading a few days ago, and they really made me think. So I thought I'd just post them on here to, well, make everybody else think too. They're a series of quotes by a man called Dr. Kent Keith. I hope you get something from them like I did...

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Before I try and briefly explain what they are all pointing towards, what did you think? I believe that the quotes end with something along the lines of:

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

As I quite frequently seem to point out, I'm not religious. However with this series of quotes, I seem to liken 'God' to an inner conscience or something similar - this is due to the fact that each quote seems to be about wrestling with your conscience about doing each of the things mentioned. The message I personally get it basically that only yourself and your conscience count when deciding these things, and that others don't. I'm probably actually way off, but that's just my own personal view of it.

After doing a bit of Googling, I found out that the quotes are about achieveing personal meaning (likened a bit to self-fulfillment and similar concepts). For me, the quotes seem to fit in perfectly with how I've felt many times, particularly how I've felt recently. The idea is that we need to do things to give our own lives meaning too, not just to make someone else happy, help someone else etc. It links in quite well with aspects such as giving lots of money to charity, lots of people do it because they genuinely care, and lots of people also do it for this reason, but also because it gives them a sense of purpose, accomplishment and fulfillment.

At the end of the day, it's not about anybody else and what they get from you, it's about what you get from yourself and how you can improve that if you feel you're not getting enough. What I find ironic is that before I even read these quotes or knew they existed, earlier this year I found myself pretty much telling myself to 'do things anyway' - even though I wasn't sure - because I knew I'd regret it if I didn't.

I know it's hard to literally just follow the 'Paradoxical Commandments', especially at my age when everything is about your peers and how they view you, but wouldn't it be nice if we just could, without any second thoughts?...

All of that almost sounds like an English essay (a very messy one though...), which I suppose is good as it almost counts as revision, as I've been analysing quotes like we're supposed to do in the exam. I'm currently also working on a post that might take me a while to get out, as there are lots of different ways I could go with it and I'm not sure where to go. So bear with me, hopefully it will be a good one :)

Besos ♥
Rachel