Author: Jacey Gillis

I have started to forget to think about my five virtues. I think the first couple days I was really paying attention and trying to better myself, now I forget to practice them. Today I struggled with getting my homework done and I put it off till 9:30. I really tried to be productive but I was just not in the mood today. I had two tests and was very stressed all day, so I came home and accidentally fell asleep. I woke up around 5:30 and then had to babysit, which I think made it even harder to get my work done.

I found these five virtues being most important: Cleanliness, Order, Productivity, patience and Acceptance. I picked these out of the many ones, because these five seem to be what I struggle the most with and I think they are important skills to have to better your future self. I think learning these virtues would also benefit the people around me. I never have a plan with anything and I think that stresses other people out too. 

I found that I struggled with being productive the most. I usually put everything off till the very last minute, and I have realized that it causes so much stress. I also feel like I could be better at the things I am doing if I gave myself more time to complete them. It is also hard to hold myself accountable for doing the things such as homework that I need to get done, because I would rather do something on my phone or hangout with my friends. 

I think I made a lot of progress on acceptance. I hope this teaches me that it is okay to not have everything go my way, and I’m not always going to do things as I expected. This is mainly with school, I always expect to do so well on all my tests and work. I try very hard in school but I need to accept that I am not always going to do well. I am very much of a perfectionist when it comes to my grades, and I hate having anything but A’s. Being in high school is a lot harder, but having a B is still a good grade. 

Overall, this assignment showed me what I need to work more on. I think having to think about the five virtues everyday for almost two weeks will keep me thinking about them more often. I hope after I practice them for a couple more weeks, I will start seeing results in bettering myself.

Today I went and bought a new planner to try and help me stay more organized. I also feel like it motivates me more when I have things written down. I hope I actually use my planner and remember to cross things off. After I did that I went to babysit and tried to do homework while they were busy but it was really distracting. I think if I used my class time better, I would have less homework in the evening and would not have to do it while I am babysitting. I feel like it is getting harder to practice the five virtues. 

Cleanliness-A

Order-A

Productivity-A

Patience-A

Acceptance- B

Today I went home after school and immediately did my homework so I could have the rest of the night off. We got our house cleaned today so I did not have anything to pick up which was a nice break. After I did my homework I got done around 4:30 and took a nap. I took my dog on a walk because it was pretty nice outside. She is still a puppy so we are trying to leash train her. Training a dog takes lots of patience, that is how I practiced being patient today. I think I am realizing how much the five virtues I picked do come into play in my everyday life. 

Cleanliness-A

Order-A

Productivity-A

Patience-A

Acceptance- C

Sundays are usually my more productive days. I cleaned my bathroom this morning. I always try to get all my work done before Sunday night and I split it up so it is more manageable. I did all my math and apush in the morning, and then did my art at night. I feel like I always have the most motivation and productivity on sundays. I did not have to do anything else besides a few homework assignments so I organized the week and everything I needed to accomplish. 

CleanlinessB

Order-A

Productivity-A

Patience-B

Acceptance- B

Today I went home pretty early, around 10. I got myself ready and did all my laundry. I cleaned out my dresser to try and make space for my winter clothes and put all my shorts and summer clothes away. I had to babysit for a few hours in the afternoon, I was not in the best mood and my patience was very low. I just tried to make it fun to make it go by faster. After I babysat, I had my friend’s birthday party. I did not do any school work but at least I cleaned and organized my room today. 

CleanlinessA

Order-A

Productivity-A

Patience-B

Acceptance- B

Since today is Friday, and I usually like to take Fridays and Saturdays to do whatever I want and spend that time with my friends, I did not accomplish a lot today. I went to dinner with my whole family for my dad’s birthday which could take a lot of patience, because i have five siblings that come along when we go out. After dinner, I slept over with my friends and was not able to do any school work or pick up my room again like I hoped. I feel like these are going to be a lot harder to practice on the weekends because most everything involves school. 

Cleanliness-B

Order-B

Productivity-C

Patience-A

Acceptance- B

I had to babysit right after school today until eight. Since I was babysitting for five hours after school, I did feel pretty tired. I got home and picked up my room to practice cleanliness and order. I set aside 30 minutes between nine and 9:30 to do my two math worksheets I had been putting off the whole week. I think the biggest thing I need to work on is productivity. I get easily distracted and have a hard time staying focused. I also always tell myself that I can do it later and put it on till the very last minute. I think the only reason I keep doing this is because i have not failed yet, I just always feel very stressed. Once I fail something because i put it off, I think it will teach me that I need to give myself more time. 

Cleanliness-A

Order-A

Productivity-B

Patience-A

Acceptance- B

Today was a lot harder to follow than the first two. Right when I got home I felt very tired and told myself I was only going to take a 30 minute nap. I accidentally ended up sleeping for almost three hours. I forgot to set an alarm and I feel like that ruined the rest of my night’s plans. I was going to get started on school work to make the rest of the week easier but I woke up around 7:30 and did not feel motivated to do any school work. I think this could be a part of learning how to accept things, because not everything is going to be perfect and go as planned. 

Cleanliness-B

Order-B

Productivity-C

Patience- B

Acceptance- B

Today I tried working more on patience and acceptance. I nanny twin six year old girls, and sometimes that can be a lot to handle. Today they started to get very tired and fussy and instead of getting frustrated with them, I just let the little things go and remembered to not get annoyed. I also did not do as good on a test as I hoped and realized it is okay to get a B sometimes. I tried very hard and studied a lot but I had to accept that I can not always get an A on everything. I found it very hard to be able to accept things. 

Cleanliness-B

Order-B

Productivity-A

Patience- A

Acceptance- B

Today I worked mostly on order and cleanliness. Right when I got home from school, I immediately cleaned my room. I organized my closet and cleaned it out a lot. I always feel so much relief after getting my stuff organized and it makes me happy. I also beat procrastination today, which is being productive. After I cleaned my room, I got all of my homework done around 6:30 and then had the rest of the night to do whatever I wanted to. I already feel so much better and there is no stress because I gave myself enough time to get everything done. 

Cleanliness-A

Order-A

Productivity-A

Patience- B

Acceptance- C

My motivation for this blog is to remind myself of my five virtues I have picked out to hopefully better myself. Being able to write about them each day will keep me thinking about them for the next two weeks, and help me stick to them. Even though me and Benjamin Franklin lived in very different times, the things people need to work on for themselves are still the same. He presented a list of virtues that I also believe are important for everyone to practice. 

There are many virtues that I feel like I could do better, but the ones I personally felt were most important are cleanliness, order, productivity, patience and acceptance. The biggest one to me is cleanliness, most of the time this includes the clothes all over my room. I am going to form a better habit of picking up my clothes because I always feel happier and more relaxed when I have a clean room. I feel like practicing order could also be a huge part of keeping clean. I am going to start writing out what I need to do, and planning to help stay in order. When trying to stay productive, I am going to go home, get all my schoolwork done, and then have the rest of the night to do whatever I want. I always put my work off until after 10 at night and then I feel very overwhelmed and tired. I really need to work on my patience. I always feel very rushed and if I take a few minutes out of my day to relax, it will help. Another big one is acceptance. I need to accept that not everything is going to be perfect and go exactly the way I want it to, and that is okay. 

My hope for blogging about my daily experiences with my virtues is to feel more relaxed, relieve stress and feel like a better person overall. I believe if I work on them for the next couple of weeks and motivate myself to continue reflecting on them even after we are done with this blog, I will feel happier and a lot better about myself. I think it will be harder to continue them when I don’t have to but that will also show that I am practicing and sticking to them.