How to Channel Your Guiding Principle?

Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out. -MARCUS AURELIUS

At eighteen years old, Charles Darwin (1809- 1882) struggled to find an obvious path forward. Two years earlier his father sent him off to study medicine and follow in his footsteps as a physician. But to his father’s disappointment, Darwin neglected his studies and dropped out of medical school. Medicine wasn’t something that held his attention and it didn’t help matters that he couldn’t stand the sight of blood.

At his father’s discretion, Darwin enrolled at Cambridge to become a clergyman, of all things. And while this also failed to stick as a career path, it was here that he first discovered botany.

Darwin was always drawn towards nature. At Cambridge his botany professor, John Steven Henslow, took note and encouraged his early aptitude. During this time, Darwin also discovered the works of Alexander von Humboldt, which inspired him to further explore his interest in the natural world. In what must have been a relief to his father, he finally graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1831.

During the summer after graduation, Darwin escaped north to wander the countryside and participate in a two-week geological survey in Wales. In August of 1831, he returned home to find a surprising letter waiting for him. Professor Henslow had recommended him for a position as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle. It was an expedition led by Captain Robert FitzRoy to chart the coast of South America.

Darwin was eager to join, but his father objected and viewed it as a foolish waste of time. Especially since he already secured a position for him in the church. But Darwin was desperate, so he enlisted the help of his uncle to lobby on his behalf. This helped convince his father to sign off and fund Darwin’s portion of the journey. Four months later, the Beagle set sail.

Contrary to his initial expectations, the journey was anything but easy for Darwin early on. During the first few weeks, he faced an overwhelming sense of loneliness and sea sickness. Each day he questioned his decision to join the crew.

To make matters worse, he shared a cabin with FitzRoy, who was prone to manic fits and mood swings. In one of history’s greatest ironies, animosity built when Darwin grew skeptical of FitzRoy’s hidden motivation for the journey – a search for evidence proving a literal interpretation of the biblical story of creation.

To get through the first few months, Darwin turned his attention back towards observation, documenting the natural world, and cataloging the various species of plants and animals he came across. By turning his attention towards the little things he found meaning in, he kept from giving up. With this outlet, he settled into his role and navigating life aboard the Beagle.

The journey would last five more years and Darwin kept tedious notes every step of the way. He observed extinct fossils of huge mammals alongside modern sea shells in the cliffs near Punta Alta, Argentina. While trekking the Andes he discovered fossilized sea shells and marine rocks at an elevation of 12,000 feet. And he marveled at the biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands. At each stop, he pondered his observations and reached for greater depths in his thinking, theorizing about each pattern or anomaly he uncovered.

But the theory of evolution wasn’t a sudden realization during his time aboard the Beagle. Darwin wouldn’t sketch out the fundamentals of the theory until six years after his return to England. And he wouldn’t publish the theory of evolution until twenty-four years after his visit to the Galapagos Islands.

During this time, he continued to speculate on diversity in the natural world through experimentation and careful observation – breeding pigeons, studying barnacles, and soaking seeds in salt water to see how long they survived.

From the outside looking in these might appear as a series of seemingly random digressions. Darwin had this in common with Humboldt, one of his strongest influences. But like Humboldt, with each step Darwin let his guiding principle lead the way. Through decades of experimentation and failed hypotheses, what tied together his every move was working to understand the nature of life. Darwin’s theory of evolution was the culmination of a lifetime of relentless effort. He knew what he was after in a deep way. Studying nature made him come alive. The result was a theory which continues to have a monumental impact on every field of science and the way we understand life.

What does this teach us?

Darwin understood the defining feature of life as motion. He found harmony in that motion, maintaining alignment as best he could as he uncovered fragments of his own guiding principle. But no matter how difficult it became, he created, observed, and theorized from wherever he was at that moment in his life. That’s how he built momentum and depth.

As you hone your own strategies, you must establish what you’re building your life upon – your guiding principle. This is a force multiplier that allows you to evolve beyond the shallow and identify the things you can attack with relentless effort. This helps you maintain perspective and guard yourself against despair, short-sighted decisions, and tactics that call your values into question.

At its heart, your guiding principle is the series of pieces you find meaning in. Start by looking for meaning in your day to day. Reflect on inclinations in your earliest years, explore activities that come naturally to you, and consider what types of intelligence your brain is wired for.

The key is determining what’s meaningful to you and not absorbing someone else’s guiding principle as your own. And this is perhaps the most difficult skill of all – sorting through the noise and determining what’s your own.

Without this first line of defense, you will be pulled in a myriad of directions. Consider the implications if Darwin would have stuck with medicine or accepted a position in the church.

But on its own, the act of identifying your guiding principle is not enough. You must learn to channel it into every ounce of your work and every strategy you employ. Just as Darwin did in his time aboard the Beagle and during his struggle to understand the nature of life in the decades that followed.

It’s almost impossible to beat someone who’s aligned with their guiding principle. They’re purposeful in their every move, exert greater force in their work, and able to sustain an astonishing level of endurance. But most importantly, they’re able to navigate their ego and bow out of races they’re not willing to run.

The ultimate strategy is holding your guiding principle in focus and channeling it into your every move. Day after day. Year after year.