My goal for writing this blog is to strive for Benjamin Franklin’s “moral perfection” by attempting to master five morals inspired by his own list. Like Franklin, I want to make myself a better person and get rid of bad habits that restrict my happiness. However, Franklin and I differ in our end goals. While he wanted to achieve perfection, I recognize that failure isn’t inherently bad and just want to do my best.
The morals I’m working on are moderation, resolution, industry, cleanliness and love for family. I chose the first one, moderation, because oftentimes I go overboard on things — whether it’s junk food, Netflix or time on Tik Tok. My plan of action for this virtue is to allow myself no more than an hour on Netflix or Tik Tok every day. Resolution, I chose because I’m an indecisive person and want to work on setting my mind to something and sticking with it. I’ll set a minute timer when I need to make a decision for this virtue. I’d like to improve on industry because I want to be as productive as possible so that I can get all of my work done every day with efficiency. I’m going to restrain myself from going on Tik Tok or spending too long talking to friends when I have work to do. Next is cleanliness. While I’m a clean person and always keep my room tidy and organized, I could do a better job of cleaning my bathroom and also contributing to my family by cleaning the kitchen when it gets messy. For this, I’m going to clean one thing in my bathroom and kitchen every day. I want to improve on showing my love for family because I often get caught up in my work and own life, so I forget to check in on my family members and spend time with them. To show my family how much I love them, I’m going to spend at least 30 minutes around at least one family member every day.
Now that it’s almost winter and getting colder, I want to make sure I’m staying happy in the darker weather. It makes me sad to spend every day on school and activities while I’m in a bad mood, just going through the motions and not really being in the moment. Practicing mindfulness by being aware of my actions will make me more present and hopefully make long days more enjoyable. I predict that I’ll have the most trouble with moderation as going overboard is a tough habit to break, and that cleanliness will be the easiest since I’m already clean. While these goals may be ambitious with my busy schedule, I hope that I can improve in these areas and put myself in a better mood.
As an indecisive person, I really love your idea of setting a minute timer for the day! I know I would’ve benefitted a lot from such a practice at least a couple of times this week. I might end up just stealing that idea. As well, I really like how you set up small goals for cleanliness, rather than making one large and grandiose one. It’s a great idea for habit setting, and I truly hope it works well for you.