Guiding principles of my life...

It was in 1999. I was in the 2nd year of my college. One of the girls in our batch had a birthday coming and a few of us decided to visit the nearby Archies Gallery to look for a gift. A poster with the following message caught my eye - in fact, it was more like a jolt. I bought the poster for myself and I had it on the wall of my hostel room for the remaining years of my college life. Every day, I read the message and every day, I felt awed. This poster was one of the few of my college things that I carried with me to grad school in the US. It was there that I realised that it was not just an Archies poster. I came to know of the Paradoxical Commandments. I read about them in detail. I also found Mother Teresa's "Final Analysis" version of these commandments. I guess, by then, without even my realizing, these had become the guiding principles of my life.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

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.

Mother Teresa's version::