The Four Deeds of Goodness

There is the surface level of the philosophy that is easy to grasp through the alliteration and three-letter mnemonics of the four deeds of goodness:  LRN LAF LUV LIV.  It states you should learn, laugh, love, and live with goodness.  Living this literal interpretation can ease you into the habit of living the philosophy, but that is just a start.  While it may seem that we do these activities often and naturally in our lives, the deeds are much more than their associated words.  Each deed of goodness has a full complement of meanings, activities, and rewards.

LRN

LRN is about improving yourself and empowering others. Improving yourself means growing, maturing, and becoming a better human being. It focuses on helping you make better decisions and becoming wiser. It helps you learn right from wrong. It allows you to live a strong life. With your knowledge, wisdom, and skills, you can help empower others so they may grow.

LAF

LAF is about enjoying yourself and uplifting others. Enjoying yourself means having fun and appreciating life. It focuses on helping you experience joy, pleasure, hope, and contentment. It helps you appreciate your opportunities. It allows you to live a positive life. With your joy and positive energy, you can uplift and spread joy to others.

LUV

LUV is about valuing yourself and nurturing others. Valuing yourself means caring for your well-being and believing you have value and purpose. It focuses on helping you stay healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It helps you be a caring person. It allows you to live a healthy and purposeful life. With your good health and beliefs, you can care for, nurture, and support others.

LIV

LIV is about realizing yourself and inspiring others. Realizing yourself means doing your best and maximizing your skills, talents, and abilities. It focuses on helping you engage in life, experience life, face challenges, and achieve your potential. It helps you excel. It allows you to live a productive life. With your self-actualization, you can inspire others.

Each deed of goodness is embodied with the core value of goodness. An action without goodness is not a deed of goodness. To laugh at someone or to take pleasure in someone else’s pain is not LAF.

Furthermore, each deed of goodness represents positive, constructive action. Doing goodness is not achieved by avoiding doing bad or doing nothing. But neither is it action for action’s sake, busy work to keep busy. The deeds must be filled with goodness and must help fulfill your mission of creating value.

Each deed of goodness can be directed inwards towards self and outwards toward others and the world. Both directions are important for balance between selfishness and selflessness, to fulfill and sustain your life’s twofold mission, and to experience both personal and divine elevations and an elevated life.

Each deed of goodness is beneficially influenced by the other deeds. Specifically, they help properly guide the deeds to do right (through LRN), do often (through LAF), do because (through LUV), and do well (through LIV). The influences confirm the importance of performing all four deeds of goodness to experience elevations in your life.

These deeds are your deeds to perform. No one can do them on your behalf. No one else is responsible for making sure you perform them. Others can help you—and it is desirable to seek and receive help—but the deeds of goodness are always done by you. And you are directly responsible for focusing on and doing them in your life.

The deeds of goodness can be applied to all aspects of your life. You can do goodness everywhere, from your relationships and your family to your work and your education. As you can see, the depths of the deeds of goodness are profound and powerful. Each of us lives a life, and we all learn, laugh, love, and live at times, but not all of us live the deeds of goodness LRN LAF LUV LIV and even fewer of us LRN LAF LUV LIV for LYF.