Author: Alaina Brunell-Wright

The virtue in which I struggled with would have probably been Self-Discipline. Though I do think that I followed through fairly well, practicing Self-Discipline… by taking that time away from my phone to get more important things done was definitely a struggle, especially in comparison to my other virtues. I think that mastering the virtue is just a game of time, actively not being on my phone just has to become a habit, and habits take a while to become something of second nature. I think the virtue I succeeded the most in was Order. I feel like I can focus so much more, just by taking a few minutes each day to complete, it’s a fairly easy virtue to achieve, and just leaves me feeling better overall. I think overall I had a fairly successful attempt. I think that I could have done better, but at the same time it could have been less successful. I think that by continuing with working on all of them-Order, Contentment, Acceptance, Self-Discipline, and Purposefulness-I will just be able to keep a clearer mind and feel more content. I think that maybe it’ll be tough to continue thinking about them, everyday, but I hope to be able to just keep them in the back of my mind, to continue progress. 

Today was much more disciplined and at times did not go as intended. I feel like the virtue of Order was in practice through our activities. We were in a bit of a time crunch, but still had things that we wanted to do, before having to be at the airport. Once at the airport I felt that my virtues of Order and Acceptance were practiced again. My flight was delayed a lot, leading to me landing in Kansas City, hours later than intended, at midnight. Before, I was going to land at a time in which I knew that I could get started on missed work, and prepare for the next day, however with this I wasn’t able to get to sleep until 2:30am, and I didn’t get any work done. However, it was outside of my range of control-so I Accepted it and moved on.

Today I spent out of town, so I didn’t find myself spending too much time thinking about my virtues-nor did many situations occur where I felt like they were being called to use. It was one that went fairly according to plan. Actually, I think that Contentment was the one that shone through the most. I was able to spend time with a friend that I don’t see often, because she moved last year. We went to a few coffee shops today-which is something I enjoy doing when traveling. I also went to a concert-concerts are one of my favorite things to go to-so it was a pretty good, Content, day. 

Today was one where I had to practice my virtues Acceptance and Self-Discipline the most. I had a flight, originally at noon, so I knew that with missing school I would have to (and did) practice Self-Discipline by using all of my spare time to do any school work I could, before the flight-and during layovers. When my flight was delayed a few hours I practiced Acceptance. Though at first I was kinda upset, because it messed with plans I had made, I knew that I had to move on and accept it for what it was. I also practiced Order, in a way, before going to the school-I knew that I had to have everything I needed packed and organized-so I would not be stressing a bunch, right before having to leave. I feel like today, though outside of my typical schedule, was a fairly good one in regards to practicing my virtues.

Today I went to work and school. It’s a Monday, typically I don’t work on Mondays, so I practiced my virtue of Acceptance by knowing that I wouldn’t necessarily get to spend my time as I wanted, but knowing that that’s okay and moving on. I practiced my virtue of Self-Discipline by taking the free time I had, at work and school, and using it to get homework done, instead of wasting it. Today I felt like it was more difficult to practice anything super explicitly because so much of my day was already planned and structured… there wasn’t much room to waste time… but also little to spend time in a way that may reflect into my virtue of Contentment. 

Today I spent time with my friends. I feel like that allowed me to practice the virtues of Contentment and Purposefulness. Spending time with people, friends feels like a much more enjoyable and a better use of free time-in contrast to mindlessly scrolling through social media. We went vintage shopping, which is something I enjoy but don’t always get to do-I feel that also ties into Contentment. In the evening I practiced Order and Self-Discipline. First, Order, by picking up my room to help with a better start to the new week. Then, Self-Discipline, by putting away my phone so I could get homework and other stuff that needed to happen, done.

Today, in school, I practiced my virtues Order and Self-Discipline. Sometimes, especially on Fridays, I tend to push off my work. However, instead, I tried to focus more on making sure that I got mostly everything done, that needed to be so, in school. In getting most of my work done in school, I was able to spend the rest of my day with friends. Practicing Order and Self-Discipline-doing the things I needed to get done earlier in the day, allowed for me to practice another one of my virtues, Contentment. The rest of the day I spent with my friends.

Today my focus lied within Purposefulness and Contentment. I feel like a lot of time, by not being able to get all of my work done at a reasonable time, I neglect things that are important to me. Today I practiced Purposefulness by putting my phone away and spending time with my little brother. I helped him with his homework and just spent screen-free time with him. Music is something I really enjoy, so by practicing Contentment, I made time to listen through a new album. 

Ranking how well I practiced each virtue today: Order 4/5, Contentment 4/5, Acceptance n/a, Self-Discipline 4/5, Purposefulness #4/5.

Today my primary virtue focuses were Order, Self-Discipline, and Purposefulness. I spent my time getting my space into order, along with focusing on getting my work done-in hopes of that allowing me to spend more time towards Contentment tomorrow. Through practicing Self-Discipline, I was able to get everything done early enough, which allowed me to practice Purposefulness. With the extra time I had, in the evening, I spent time with my family. I stayed down for the entirety of dinner, which I don’t always do because I feel that I’m rushing to get all of my work done.

Ranking how well I practiced each virtue today: Order 4/5, Contentment 3/5, Acceptance n/a, Self-Discipline 5/5, Purposefulness 4/5.

Today is my first day in working on my five virtues (Order, Contentment, Acceptance, Self-Discipline, and Purposefulness) and my journey to some sort of moral better-ness. The virtue most apparent, today, was Acceptance. My day went un-according to plan. I was sick, which meant that I had to stay home from school, and because I’m going to be absent next week too, it stressed me out. However I knew that this was outside of my control, so I did my best to just move past it. The other virtue I focused on was Self-Discipline. Instead of spending my whole day doing nothing, laying on my phone, I tried to do things that I needed to get done, in hopes of minimizing how behind I got. Overall I think that it was a fairly successful first day of working on my virtues.

In this project, I have chosen five virtues to better achieve moral perfection. Despite having minimal knowledge on Franklin, aside from what I’ve learned within the means of school, this project is modeled after Benjamin Franklin. Franklin chose thirteen virtues, and strove to model his life to fit with these, to hopefully achieve some sort of moral perfection. Though I do not think that I will be able to become morally perfect, through this project, I hope to see improvements in these chosen virtues, in across facets of my life. 

The five virtues I have chosen for this experiment consist of Order, Contentment, Acceptance, Self-Discipline, and Purposefulness. These are all aspects and areas of my life that I think I could improve on, to better achieve moral perfection. I have some trouble keeping my space in Order-despite feeling better as a whole when it is put together. I hope to improve upon consistently keeping my space orderly. In terms of Contentment I hope to find time for things in which I enjoy, but sometimes neglect during the school year. In regards to Acceptance, I sometimes find myself hanging on things that perhaps are out of control, sometimes allowing them to put my whole day or even week out of whack. I hope to work on finding acceptance in things that are outside of my control. Self-Discipline, this is something I struggle with in regards to getting my school work done, outside of the school day, and being on my phone too much. I hope to become more disciplined in both of those areas, though I do believe that they are very much related. Finally, in terms of Purposefulness, I hope to become more intentional with my time and how I choose to spend it. When I have down time, instead of wasting all of it on my phone, I want to take that time to spend time with my little brothers and family.

Though I don’t think that I will be able to achieve complete moral perfection, through my time spent in this project, I hope to be diligent in working on my virtues. In the end of this, I hope to see improvement, in these facets of my life. I look forward to seeing how this goes, for both myself and others. I hope that even when this is over, the potential growth I’ve made stays with me, to help better improve who I am-in the long run.