One of Joe’s most striking observations is that everyone is already living by a set of principles — they just aren’t conscious ones. These default principles are things like “stay out of trouble,” “make sure everybody’s happy,” “please people,” “be codependent,” or “get angry when you don’t get what you want.”
“We are actually already living by a set of principles. Unfortunately, a lot of those principles aren’t great principles.”
Simply bringing these unconscious principles into awareness starts to change things. You begin to see: “Oh, those things aren’t working for me.” From there, you can run experiments to discover what actually works. The profound shift isn’t just replacing bad principles with good ones — it’s the act of making the unconscious conscious.
This connects to Joe’s broader teaching that awareness itself is transformative. You don’t need to force change; you need to see clearly what’s already happening.
Related Concepts
- Principles automate decision-making
- Awareness changes what shoulds cannot
- Identity you can’t see controls you most
- Changing behavior is the most efficient way to change consciousness
- You have already changed thousands of beliefs without noticing
- Paying attention to stress without trying to change it reduces it
- Feeling your essential nature dissolves avoidance behaviors