I pretty much go by: be good in your thoughts and actions. Or, how would you like to be treated? I have posted a statement in my office, the author of which could be Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Frank Outlaw~Bi-Lo Stores, or anyone as probably in its base statement was less wordy... but ultimately:
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors.
Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habit.
I like to call my ethical code Optimistic Nihilism: Nothing matters so grudges are meaningless. Just try to make the best of it.
And I just noticed there is a Kurzgesagt video with that exact same name... Well, now I have something to watch.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, it is a code that has existed since the advent of civilization, unlike many believe the abrahamic religions didn't invent ethics and morals, amerikkka today is all the proof I need that the abrahamic religions are morally bankrupt and ethically challenged.
The basic moral code for me is
Do the least amount of harm(emotional, physical or mental) to others and yourself.
Not the most nuanced of code but it works for me
I like to think of myself as a mirror, I reflect back whatever people give me.
Treat others as you want to be treated
Protect the weak and innocent
Love freely and generously
I believe in Good. What I think is good... My Moral Compass is Far from Perfect but I reckon is a work in progress until my end.
I think I'm a social animal and it seems morality for me consists in doing only things you can live with doing, things you wouldn't condemn someone else for doing; but many things are debatable. Sometimes you have to or want to do things that violate a social code you've lived with and it can be difficult to gauge whether your reason for doing it supersedes whatever constraints you feel.
I developed my own code, I call it secular humanism. It's nothing extraordinary. Is a set of rules that are taken from religious writings, from philosophy, from ideologies, my own experience and novels like Crime and Punishment, J'accuse, and a few hundred other books. We are not born with a blank slate. We are the same but we are also different.
I am a consequentialist. That means that I believe actions are good insofar as they increase the wellbeing of conscious creatures. The capacity to feel pain and pleasure are the defining qualities of a conscious creature. So, actions that make people worse off are bad, actions that make people better off are good. Things that make dogs worse off are also bad.
I think it's really quite simple.
Believe in myself. I am the master of my universe. What happens after my life is over is what happens. The speculation can be fun and bring forth interesting conversation but when it becomes a basis of how to live your life out of fear then we have a problem.
I try to live by the Golden Rule. That seems to be the philosophy of living that makes the most sense to me. Treat all others fairly.
I try to live fully, love wastefully, and be all I can be, as Jesus and others did. (John Shelby Spong, and Bart D. Ehrman)
The same one I followed when religious, love and empathy, care for the least of these, and always look behind the curtain or hassock question everything.