Part II – Cowboy Principles
By Rebecca Harris, MS, LPC, CEAP

Recently, as I was droning on about the state of politics, the lack of respect for world leaders, religious leaders, our fellow citizens, the lopsided criminal justice system etc. I caught myself. Stop being so negative I’m telling myself. I read and listen to way too much news media. These are not the sources that I like to think form my Guiding Principles. Listening to endless negative ads, rhetoric from loud- mouthed radio and TV personalities with huge egos can get me revved up. I start feeling justified about my discontent with life and all the perceived inequities. This is NOT how I want to spend my time. I do not want to be like them, or identified as having similar thinking on many topics.

Instead, when I catch myself-or someone lovingly points out my negativity, I try to get back to thinking about what defines me. What do I want to inspire in others, what in others inspires me? Often I find that simply thinking of all the wonderful “real life people” I know brings that serenity. Most of the people in my life are good, decent, respectful and loving individuals. They seem to practice the guiding principles of unspoken code of ethics from the days of the old when we actually had to work together to accomplish things. Their very survival depended on it.

A friend recently told me about a website on “Cowboy Ethics”. It’s about character and values, and had some really great guiding principles that cowboys live by. Because it’s copyrighted, I can only paraphrase. The site is http://www.cowboyethics.org.

Basically the principles are simple and apply universally to both work and home life.

* Do what needs to be done
* Take pride in your work
* Keep your promises
* Be fair
* Finish what you start
* Talk less and listen more

These are some of the ten ideas presented. Sounds good to me! I’d rather be thinking about the good in people rather than the bad.

Next week: The golden rule.

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George "Bud" Wassell, M.S., LPC, CEAP
Director, Solutions EAP
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