In a sense ideals are real conditions, and enjoyable activity is something that one aims at. Conditions leading to foreseen consequences. Like Heraclitus' pairs, ends and means belong together, have no meaning in isolation from one another. Means and end are correlative notions arising in the course of practical reflection and deliberation. Tools or instruments, working hypotheses that guide conduct.
Principles are good or true if they work, if they help direct present affairs to favorable outcomes.
They are not eternal nor fixed in stone. Like other factors, they are changeable and flexible. Like tools, they must be constantly modified to work in varying and evolving situations. Moral principles are means not ends, servants not masters in the moral situation. Like habits, moral principles are bequeathed from generation to generation, with alteration from time to time.