I struggled most with my Self-control virtue. I selected this virtue because I know that I need to eat healthier and gain and retain healthy eating habits so that when I am older and my metabolism drops, I won’t get fat and unhealthy. I seriously fear getting fat and being unhealthy in the future, that is why this self-control virtue, to limit my intake of candy, junk food, and other sweets, is so important to me. I know I exercise currently, and I hope I can carry this habit into the future, at least it will be easier to do so than a healthy eating habit, since I’ve already developed a habit of exercising. During this blog, I had ups and downs regarding Self-control, somedays I would do great, not eating any junk food or sweets. Then, on other days, I could eat 3 donuts. My problem was consistency with my virtue, if I had just kept with it the whole time I would feel much better about it.
I did succeed most with regard to my tranquility virtue, of which I interpreted as keeping calm and not getting upset at trivial issues. I believe this success is because I was already a somewhat tranquil person, so I didn’t get upset unless it was warranted or needed, such as communicating in a soccer game, which is a place where you cannot be tranquil. I did benefit from this progress, because as I realized, to calm myself down about certain issues, I just have to remind myself that it’s not worth it to get angry. Just a simple reminder to myself, which started because I didn’t want to break my virtue, has helped me a lot. This is important to me because I don’t enjoy getting angry, I don’t think anyone does, especially over trivial things. So being able to not get mad over these small incidents makes me a much happier and overall better person.
I was able to improve in some aspects of myself, but one can only do so much in 10 days. I believe I started on the path to creating some good habits, wether I ultimately failed or not. I now know a way in which I can truly calm myself down quickly. I also know that if I want to improve myself in the future, all I need to do is give myself constant reminders of what I am trying to improve and that if I keep it in the front of my mind, and one of my first thoughts throughout the day, then I can achieve my goal. If I let it slip to the back of my mind, then I start compromising myself by forgetting or choosing to abandon the virtue for a moment. I think this is why I did bad on some days with certain virtues and good on other days, I could never fully focus on all five virtues at once. I do not find myself incorrigible, and I have found a way, or formula almost, to improve myself.
I know what it is like to have inconsistency with the virtues, but it is awesome that you stuck with them for this long. I hope that you can keep up your tranquility even after the project. I really like your analysis on why you were successful on some virtues and not others, and I hope that this helps you out on other aspects of your life also.