Author: Anna Mitchell

For my five virtues — Order, Cleanliness, Balance, Patience, and Kindness — I would say I was relatively successful. I could use this assignment as evident of my positive place in society by showing these blogs and genuinely seeing how I was working on being a better person, for my others around me as well as myself. I would like to keep up with improving on these virtues and maintaining good and positive energy to the community.

Working on moral perfection was a great process for me. The virtue I struggled with the most was definitely balance. However, I expected this to come a little bit harder for me because of my busy schedule and school filled evenings (usually), on top of sports and my much needed alone time. I selected balance for the purpose of spending more time with family and friends, while also not letting school and health go down the drain. In order to master this virtue, I believe I need to keep working on it, and remain consistent with carving out time strictly for balance.

I believe I most improved in my Order virtue. It started a habit of me organizing my room every morning before leaving, getting organized and having a good breakfast, and making sure all my work and activities for my day are planned out. While I had done some of this before, it was never a habit nor consistent in my everyday life, giving a much more minuscule benefit. I expect this to help with my stress and simply make my days run smoother with less chaos. This important to me in order to keep my anxiety low and enjoy everyday, regardless of what happens.

Overall, I greatly benefitted from every virtue in some way. With Order, I have become more organized and been able to create methods to remain this way after this assignment. Cleanliness additionally helped me stay more organized, yet also serve the purpose to cleanse my mind and body, in a very positive way. With Balance, I have been able to seek time to carve out for family, friends, myself everyday in relation to school and other activities also. Patience helped me take everything a little bit slower and just relax, no matter what people around me are doing, and give myself grace in situations. Lastly, kindness, helped me focus on being more optimistic and stray far away from anything negative, especially to other people. All five virtues will help better me as a person as a whole, and I look forward to working on these and staying consistent, although I will never be perfect.

I started my day out with a workout class before school which was really nice and helped me clear my mind a little bit. Even with taking away my time to sleep in, it made me feel productive. I think that honestly helped with all of my virtues the rest of the day because I was more patient with myself, felt more organized and cleansed, and also my workout is being kind to my body on its own. With balance, after school, I sat in my sister’s bed while I did math homework and we got to talk and catch up a little bit with our week. Overall, I felt successful with all my virtues and was in a good mood all day. 

Today was a really good day! However, my cleanliness this morning was a little weak, I tidied up as soon as I got home so I wouldn’t get back in bed. I made a big to do list to help me organize myself and all my tasks, benefitting my order. I also did homework as soon as I got home from nannying which was super nice. I had soccer practice at 7 which was actually really fun and it was our first indoor practice which was exciting! For patience today, I stayed really patient with others, including myself. My sister was annoying me after school but I kept my cool and just kept doing my homework. With balance, I went on a drive with my mom which was fun and made her listen to Taylor Swift with me. For my kindness virtue, I was kind to myself and made sure to not stress myself out with all my work. I also have been trying to check in on friends everyday and ask how they are doing (sincerely) and I think that also goes into kindness. Today was overall really beneficial and I got a lot done!

I had a really good day today. I woke up on my own before my alarm which was weird but I felt energized and was for some reason excited to get my day started. I kept up with my orderly routine of making my bed and cleaning my room before going to make my breakfast, giving me a good start with 10/10 for both order and cleanliness. I went to school and felt very organized with my work which is always good and helpful. I kept very patient with myself and when I began to feel stressed about anything I calmed myself down quickly. After school I went to a workout class and hung out with a friend which was really relaxing and helped with my kindness. Day eight was for sure one of my better days for my virtues and myself.

I had a successful day with all of my virtues. I went to bed early last night which helped me get up this morning and organize myself and make sure I didn’t leave a mess of a room behind for when I get home. For both order and cleanliness, that helped start my day out right. With patience, I felt really tired this morning but as the day went on I felt more energized and kept patient with myself, especially as it is a Monday. Balance was okay, I didn’t have a lot of homework so I got to talk to my parents and catch up with my friends who went out of town this weekend, but I was also exhausted and kind of drained making it a little bit of a challenge. Lastly, with kindness I went to a workout class, being kind to myself, and also checking in on a few friends I hadn’t talked to in awhile. Overall, today was a a good start to my week.

Today was a pretty relaxing day. I got to sleep in which was very nice and my dad even made me breakfast. I went to a workout class which felt good and made me feel accomplished, as well as patient with myself in the class. I made a todo list for my homework which kept me in order and organized. I worked on balance by hanging out with my sister during the day and we got to just talk for a couple of hours and catch up. With kindness, I worked mainly on being kind to myself today and making sure I don’t stress myself out this week with Thanksgiving Break coming up.

I give day five an overall ten out of ten. First off, I woke up and made my bed before making myself a good breakfast, checking off some order and cleanliness for the day. Then, I went to a workout class and cleansed my mind and it was nice to get exercise in the morning, as well as portrayed my kindness virtue by doing something as simple as holding the door and asking people how they were. I came home and catched up with my mom while I worked on some homework which was nice because I’ve been super busy this past week. I even had time to take a nap which was nice and I think this helped me be very patient with myself today and just relax and recover. I got to go to dinner with friends and dress up which was very fun and calming. Today was definitely a good day for my virtues and myself.

I would say today was a little bit of a struggle. I had to get to school early to help out a teacher and was very rushed, causing my morning order and cleanliness to be successful. With it being Friday my patience was also a little bit off, but for a good and exciting reason obviously. My balance today gets a 10/10 with getting to spend a lot of time with friends and also already did the majority of my homework after school. Lastly, kindness was a success. I was in a good mood all day and even though I can’t pin a specific moment, I feel like I put out positive and kind energy all day. I’m curious to see how my virtues go over the weekend with more free time.

Overall, day three was pretty successful. I woke up earlier on my own this morning and took it as a lot of productive downtime which was one of my main goals at the beginning of this process. I got to make my bed, put away laundry, and make an actual good breakfast for the first time in the awhile which was super relaxing and just started my day off good. That for sure played into order and cleanliness. Balance today is a little bit of struggle with my schedule, but I am trying to find time for that and do homework right after school. Overall I think I had a good day for virtues and already feel like I am improving.

My second day was overall okay. I for sure had little achievements, which I am still proud of. First off, order and cleanliness this morning was quite the struggle. I woke up late and had to get to school by seven for a StuCo meeting which set me back a little. However, I had a very productive workday and kept organized with all my classes, despite chaos and stress. Balance is a little rougher today also with my DECA tournament but everyday after school I’m going to try to talk to my parents about my day before sitting down for homework. Also, with order, I decided to make sure I do homework out of my bed and hopefully I will get my assignments done quicker and more efficiency if I’m not tempted to take a nap. Patience was a challenge today because it always is more on my odd days with my classes but I gave myself 30 minutes of free time after school to eat a snack and look at TikTok before doing homework. Lastly, I worked on kindness with helping classmates in Physics with their work. I also am trying to say hi to people in the halls, even if I don’t know them super well. Overall, today still had improvements and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

My first day of morally perfecting myself went relatively well. Usually when I first wake up, I pop out of bed, do my morning routine and leave. However, today, I made my bed first thing and made sure my room was tidy before going to make my breakfast, working on my order virtue as well as cleanliness. With balance, I spent an hour with my older sister after doing homework. This also combined with order, as I planned out an hour to do homework after school with zero distractions. My patience for the day was definitely my least worked on virtue for day one, yet I didn’t feel super impatient with myself and others, which is a good thing. Lastly, kindness is something I feel like I work on subconsciously everyday. Now being more aware of it though, changes my perspective for sure. I tutored a friend in math and also worked on the can food drive for Johnson County Christmas Bureau. Overall, I would give day one a 8/10.

My motivation behind this blog is to show my progress on five virtues important in my life: order, cleanliness, balance, patience, and kindness. This blog will track the different ways each day I improve myself in one or more of those areas. Benjamin Franklin strived to morally perfect himself in life. Franklin made it very clear that he was not working on these all at the same time, but instead working on every virtue one day at a time, similar to me. I strongly respect Benjamin Franklin and all of his wisdom, and I think this idea is something that many people, including myself hopefully, will and would find beneficial for life.

The five virtues I’ll be working on are order, cleanliness, balance, patience, and kindness. I chose order because I think when I’m more organized, I feel more at peace physically and mentally, making days and weeks run much smoother with a nice to-do list and plans for my weeks ahead. I chose cleanliness that goes kind of hand in hand with order and making sure my room is clean as well as mind, whether this is making my bed before I leave for school or going to a yoga class. I also chose balance because I think it is important to balance friend and family relationships as well as school and extracurriculars. Balance also kind of goes with order with the idea of making a plan and making sure I am balancing all my responsibilities. Patience is another virtue I chose because I think sometimes I get very impatient with not only those around me but also myself and don’t give myself the time of day to breathe and kind of regroup. Lastly, I chose kindness. I believe I already strive to be kind to those around me everyday, but would like to make that a priority and put good and positive energy into the world rather than stress and negativity. 

My hope for this process is to obviously improve as a person but also to keep these lessons for the future and turn them into habits. My prediction is that I won’t be 100% successful but that I will most definitely benefit from focusing on these virtues. I am looking forward to seeing what this does to me and my daily life.