In 3 words: kind, honest and respectful.
Mooji’s values: wisdom (1), loving kindness (5), compassion, honesty(1), love, truthfulness(7), humility, surrender, courage(1), and victory over evil and all forms of negativity. Power, clarity, unity, joy and freedom.
Aspirational Values
- High Character – truth, trust and virtue.
- Commit to truth: pursue truth, be honest.
- Build high levels of trust: honor your word.
- Virtue: do what’s right. Embody the 4 ancient virtues of Wisdom, Courage, Justice, Temperance.
- Respect – see the good in others.
- Commitment to think win/win: align self-interest with others for mutual benefit.
- Open-mindedness: have the humility and willingness to consider new or different ideas and improve one’s own.
- Tolerance: accept people’s differences in thought, action, and belief.
- Civility towards others: maintain goodwill, politeness, and respect, even in disagreement.
- Contribution – help others and better yourself.
- Voluntary/loving kindness: be caring and compassionate to others without expectations.
- Consistent self-improvement: aim high, fall short, do well. Setbacks are our teachers; the obstacle is the way. Inspire others by your example.
The Moral Principle is: ‘Be an Excellent Human’.
The nine Aspirational Values that define excellence are:
- High Character – doing the right thing for the right reasons. This includes the 4 ancient virtues:
- Wisdom: prudent decision making, involving deliberation, discernment, foresight and decisiveness.
- Courage: the fortitude and resilience to face inevitable difficulties and do what’s right.
- Justice: committing to fairness by acting with integrity and giving others what is due to them.
- Temperance: balance in desires, emotions and actions. Self-control and moderation.
- Commitment to Thinking Win/Win – aligning our self-interest with the interests of others for mutual benefit. We should foster cooperation and long-term relationships to raise standards of living for all. This requires carefully listening to understand other people and their ways of thinking.
- Open-Mindedness – being willing to consider new or different ideas from our own. We all hold incorrect views. Without being fickle, we should seek to improve our ideas by listening to others.
- Tolerance – recognizing that people look, think, act, love and live differently. We should accept peaceful behavior and beliefs, even when we personally disapprove of them. We should tolerate other people living however they choose, so long as they don’t initiate non-consensual aggression.
- Voluntary Kindness – being caring, compassionate and generous to others in need, even when there is nothing tangible to gain. Forced kindness violates the Legal Principle, but being voluntarily kind, and inspiring others to be, helps create a peaceful world.
- Civility Towards Others – maintaining a dignified demeanor of friendship, politeness, goodwill, and respect toward others. We should choose calmness in the face of disagreement, not hold resentment and be non-judgmental. We should set a good example, even when others are uncivilized.
- A Commitment to Truth – pursuing knowledge about what is objectively true about nature and the universe.
- Building High Levels of Trust – honoring our word and fulfilling what we promise. Trust is the foundation of every human relationship. We should act in ways that inspire others to believe in our integrity and high character.
- Consistent Self-Improvement – recognising that no human is perfect, but bringing the best new version of ourselves forward. Every setback is an opportunity for growth. By taking responsibility for our mistakes, we can constructively learning from them through practice, diligence and dedication.
The definition of ‘excellent’ is subjective, but these nine aspirational values are offered as an enthusiastic suggestion to align with humanity’s highest potential. You are free to reject them and tailor your own. However, our behaviour should be worthy of freedom, otherwise we strengthen the forces that oppose it. Self-governance is what we must all master; being free, but not wild.
The phrase ‘live and let live’ does not inform us how to live. Simply refraining from initiating aggression is the essential minimum for peaceful co-inhabitation. A path to peace must go beyond merely achieving freedom if it is to provide value to our lives and our global community. The nine aspirational values focus on the traits we can all adopt to best contribute to the vitality of this overall community. They do not touch on the meaning of life or spirituality, for these are beyond scope here, important as they are to many.
In contrast to the Legal Principle, the Moral Principle is not mandatory – understanding this distinction is critical to attaining peace in our local and global society. You are in charge of how you choose to live your life. A society cannot legislate virtuosity into existence. Competent adults do not all agree on morality, so attempts to enshrine morality into law just creates an endless struggle those who legitemately hold different moral values. Coercively imposing our morality on others is to forget that coercion itself is immoral; its a circular reference. Instead of coercion, a free society must rely on inspiring and persuading others to voluntarily adopt morality in their hearts and minds. Be an example for others to emulate. Don’t just advocate for the Live and Let Live Philosophy – live it!
‘Humanity’s collective excellence’, paraphrased as ‘the minimisation of human suffering’, is the vision of the Live and Let Live Movement, with the Legal Principle of not aggressing being the mandatory bare minimum component.
- Full extract of the aspirational values from Marc J Victor’s book
High Character – A person’s character results from their core values and motivations for acting. It is the quality of doing the right thing for the right reasons. This concept encompasses traits like integrity, honesty, loyalty, responsibility, accountability, compassion, empathy, gratitude, fairness, patience, fortitude, and others that promote good behavior. The four traditional virtues in ancient philosophy and many of the world’s most successful moral traditions include practical wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance or balance. The MP specifically promotes these four virtues as part of aspiring to a high moral character. Always striving to improve one’s character and act accordingly in all situations is arguably the most basic, comprehensive, and crucial aspirational value.
A Commitment to Thinking Win/Win – We should always seek ways to align our self-interest with the interests of others to achieve mutually beneficial results. This approach fosters free trade, raises standards of living for both parties, and fosters cooperation, mutual benefit, long-term relationships, and high trust. Investing time to genuinely understand another person’s thinking, preferences, and biases to determine what constitutes a “win” for another person is a prerequisite to achieving and engaging in a win/win agreement. Carefully listening to others is essential to realize this aspirational value.
Open-mindedness – We should always remain willing to consider new or different ideas, opinions, and conclusions from the ones we currently hold. This open-mindedness should be the case for all issues. If we confront a better idea, opinion, or determination, we should not be afraid to modify our current position on any subject. This willingness to change does not mean we ought to be fickle. However, we should recognize that none of us is perfect, and we all currently hold incorrect views. Remaining open-minded is the best way to learn and improve. There is no downside to being open-minded.
Tolerance – We should recognize that people look, speak, celebrate, love, think, act, and even live differently. We should aspire to genuinely accept the peaceful behavior and beliefs of others that differ from our own, even if we do not personally agree with or approve of them. We recognize that all people are imperfect and act imperfectly at times. Let’s resolve, at least legally, to tolerate the rights of others to live however they choose so long as they do not violate the LP.
Voluntary Kindness Toward Others – We should aspire to be caring, compassionate, generous, and helpful toward others in need even when we are not required to do so and there is nothing tangible to gain. While we reject forced kindness, we seek to inspire people to voluntarily be kind toward others because it is the right thing to do and for the sake of creating a peaceful world.
Civility Toward Others – We seek to inspire people to maintain a dignified demeanor of friendship, politeness, goodwill, and respect toward others. We reject harboring unjustified hostility toward others, calling people derogatory names, or being rude. We should set an example for people to emulate, even when others act uncivilized. We each retain the ability to choose how we respond to others. Harboring anger, hostility, or resentment is unproductive and does not foster peace. We can always agree to disagree calmly and respectfully. We should always politely acknowledge another’s good faith effort to communicate respectfully. Let’s treat others as we would want them to treat us.
A Commitment to Truth, Facts, and Rational Thought – We should be firmly committed to pursuing knowledge about what is objectively true about nature and the universe. We value clear, dispassionate thinking, logical reasoning, facts, and rational inferences from those facts. This commitment remains the case even if the facts of reality overthrow our current beliefs. We should not stubbornly cling to erroneous facts, beliefs, or conclusions merely to appear “right.” Instead, we should pursue the limits of human knowledge wherever it leads.
Building High Levels of Trust with Others – Trust is the foundation upon which we build all productive human relationships. Our best relationships are the ones where we have earned a high level of trust. We should never miss an opportunity to build trust with another person. To build trust, we must first be trustworthy. We should always act in ways that inspire others to believe in our integrity and underlying high character justifiably. We should encourage all people to honor their word and fulfill what they promise to foster ever- increasing trust with others.
Consistent Self-Improvement – We recognize no human is perfect. We all make mistakes, which we should enthusiastically own, accept full responsibility for, and constructively learn from. We should promote and maintain a commitment to excellence in all areas. We each have countless opportunities to improve in all ways. Learning is a life-long process requiring practice, diligence, and dedication. As part of being an excellent human, the 3LM inspires all people to bring the best new version of themselves forward frequently and continually work toward self-improvement in all areas of life