Because situations are constantly changing, we also change, knowing yourself is not a one-and-done achievement. Rather, you learn, revise, and rediscover things about yourself. Again, this is why reflection is so important. The less you really know yourself, the less you can trust in yourself to follow through on things. And if you can’t trust in yourself, you don’t have much going for you.

There’s a theory that dates back to the days of Aristotle that says that any virtue is simply the midway point between two extremes. An excess of something or a deficiency in it ends up being a liability.

While people tend to understand that you shouldn’t have too much of anything, they tend to forget that the opposite is true as well. We can get into mindsets where we believe the answer is to impose harsh restrictions on ourselves. No more eating this. No more drinking that.  But this mindset is also an example of excess. It can very quickly backfire on you, even with the best of intentions.

All things being equal, we humans crave certainty. We don’t tend to take risks regularly, and we long for sure things. But anyone who’s thrown down the yokes of comfort to pursue serious personal growth can tell you what happens when you cling to the sure things: stagnation. That stagnation comes by way of dependence.

The way it happens is: You get dependent upon the comfort of the sure things. And after a while, you close yourself off to anything that seems to risk that comfort.

For all the ways the world has changed in the last 2,500 years, there are principles from that time that still represent the best advice for modern living. The 3 discussed here are by no means all-encompassing. But they’re at the very least universal.

Many of the principles and values we adopt can be derived from these three. Alternatively, following these principles can be gateways to finding the specific values and principles that drive our individual lives forward.