Ben Franklin and my to-do list

[puglogic]

Someone turned me on to this web page, and I've been pondering it since:
http://ethicsalarms.com/rule-book/ben-franklins-two-daily-questions-and-13-virtues/

The daily questions I embrace wholeheartedly. The virtues, well, some of them I had to think about. I think, with the right interpretation for my own life (such as the definition of "Cut off all unnecessary Actions.") this could be a nice thing to try to keep in mind as I put my day together each morning. Or am I just an idealist?

[mtnlaurel]

Thank you very much Puglogic for posting this.
It hits the spot for me.
I'm printing it now and putting it up.

From the list:
"Chastity. Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation."

I had to look up Venery - it's sexual indulgence

How interesting that is there, the general sense I get is that Ben 'got around' quite a bit.
Do you think this was written later in his life as he was reflecting over his lifetime?
Or did he just need that many encounters for 'health reasons'?

There are a few historical figures that I am just bananas about and Ben Franklin is one of them for sure.

[JaneV2.0]

Mtnlaurel beat me to it. Franklin was a notorious libertine. "Do as I say, not as I do" has ever been popular with public figures, apparently.

[puglogic]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I use venery for health purposes as regularly as I can. ;)

And I find myself not caring so much about whether Franklin stuck to his own virtues. I'm interested only in swiping them if they serve. Admittedly, it's a weird quirk of mine to try to find external things that help me articulate a good-for-me life.......not because I'm too lazy to form my own list, but because I'm looking for ways to get it to stick in my swiss-cheesy 50-year-old brain lol. In the crush of busy days, sometimes I lose sight of what kind of person I really want to be.

[mtnlaurel]

Here is another little interesting quote before the listing of the virtues in his Autobiography:
"My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view, as they stand ."

I think it's very telling that Temperance (eating & drinking) is #1.
Jane - Chastity is listed as #12, maybe he didn't get that far mastering the first 11? :|(

And then he had a checklist that he would record his progress:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/benjamin-franklins-habit-tracker/35069

He worked to replace old bad habits with new habits.
We just recently discussed this on a thread within the past few months, I think in reference to the book recently out, The Power of Habit
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/1400069289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345824926&sr=8-1&keywords=habit
As a 12 Step person, I SO WAY get this - it's a must or you won't make it.

And here is a link to his daily schedule:
http://flowingdata.com/2011/03/20/daily-schedule-of-benjamin-franklin/

So is this why the planner store is named [B]FranklinCovey?
Do you guys smell something burning? ... That's my brain connecting all the dots.

Here is a good printable version of the 13 Virtues I found:
http://blog.givemore.com/wp-content/themes/givemore/pdf/tools/franklins_13_virtues.pdf

Thanks again Puglogic for sending me down this much needed rabbit hole!



Edited to delete my commentary on Liberal Arts ed. - if I want to engage in a conversation I need to go to thread it's being held in. Sorry.

[mtnlaurel]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I use venery for health purposes as regularly as I can. ;)

I think that's a lot of what the movie Hope Springs is about.
And I was watching a snippet of Dr. Oz (which I can only do in VERY small doses) where he brought up the health benefits of the chemicals released during togetherness.

Ol' Ben was ahead of his time for sure on a lot of counts.

[decemberlov]

Here is a good printable version of the 13 Virtues I found:
http://blog.givemore.com/wp-content/themes/givemore/pdf/tools/franklins_13_virtues.pdf

Thanks again Puglogic for sending me down this much needed rabbit hole!




Thanks! I will be posting this both at home & at work, as a daily reminder.
I remember coming across this while reading his autobiography (and it's free on kindle!).
As a fellow printer, I am a big fan or Mr. Franklin :)

[JaneV2.0]

And he was widely venerated during his lifetime! http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/artists/mother_goose/MG_119.gif

[puglogic]

For word geeks like me: http://wordinfo.info/unit/3675/ip:5/il:G

Venery, venerate, venereal......root Venus, "love, worship" or "hunt" (interesting) Anyway. Now I'm going down mtnlaurel's rabbit hole. Back to work, me!