November 19, 2021
Around ten days ago, I began my journey of moral perfection. I picked the virtues tranquility, silence, moderation, patience, and contentment. When practicing these virtues, I found one virtue, in particular, to be the most beneficial. This virtue was moderation. I had an interesting comment from one of my peers that I would like to expand on. He said that he found it unusual that most of my efforts were being put towards allowing myself to become more relaxed. However, as I am supposed to better my life, and by extension, the lives of those around me, I think relaxing is more important than it seems. Focusing on these virtues allowed me to really become introspective about my life, and choose the best and most productive paths for myself going forward.
If I am reflecting on my journey honestly, I would have to say that I struggled to practice these virtues more than I could have imagined. The virtue that I found to be the most difficult was patience. Patience was difficult to record and remember. I selected patience because sometimes I think that I am a bit brash and unwilling to learn from others. Being patient was important to me so that I could really listen and gain new knowledge and insight from others. Although I feel like I improved, I still had a hard time remembering to be patient with others on my busy days. I am planning to continue to practice this virtue as I did find some success in it. My belief is that I will become more open-minded and an active listener if I continue practicing patience.
Although I saw many improvements in all of my virtues, I found that my greatest success was in moderation. As a busy person, moderation allowed me to slow down and really begin to take time to enjoy people and activities that make me happy. I now try to add moderation into my schedule each day, and honestly, I feel much more joy in my life than I had in a long time. This happiness has spread to every corner of my life making even the most menial tasks enjoyable.
Overall, I found my progress with these virtues to not be exactly what I wanted, but to still be a success. I am very proud of how hard I worked on focusing on my virtues, even in my busy life. The recorded progress has provided me with more insight into my life and the things that I need to incorporate in my life to bring me joy and peace. I never thought that I would be proud of being a “speckled ax,” or someone who is content with not achieving perfection, but practicing new things take patience and time, and now I am beginning to see the good side of both.