Author: Jacob Podrebarac

Like Franklin I ended up struggling the most with my Order virtue. It just was so hard to bring Order to the busyness of life. The ability to do such is something that I have struggled with for my entire life, and I wish to continue this virtue even after the project is over. Some days when I did do well at this virtue it really brought me back to the essence of why I chose to focus on it. The days with strong order would lead to bettering all of my other virtues. If I could simply focus on organizing and ordering my day, then I would have more time to focus on my other virtues. The virtue of Order was the key to all other virtues. Although I acknowledged to some extent this at the beginning of the project, my appreciation of this fact has only grown with the progression of the project. Although I was able to bring this key with me for much of this journey, my Order was not always perfect and I often would lock myself out of the rest of my virtues. Moving forward I need to start scheduling out my days and allocating appropriate time for each of my activities. This will allow me to gain better control over my life and finally allow me to have structure in my busiest of days.

Despite my struggles on Order, I still had success in my virtue of Industry. Before the project I seemed to always do everything in the least efficient way possible. If I had a thirty minute assignment, I would somehow find a way to take an hour to finish it. I have learned strategies along the way including setting a specific time for me to do my homework. This made me focus in on the time it takes and ultimately gave me goals for the specific assignment. This really helped me to have more free time and time to myself as I now was not spending so much time on homework. I expect to keep these strategies for completing work quicker, and I am very happy to see that I was able to make so much progress on this, because it seemed that I never had any free time before this.

I felt that even though I had varying degrees of success on each virtue, overall I did well on all of them. Even with Order, which I struggled at throughout, I still felt like the fact that I am now focusing on it and realizing my weaknesses at it is something that will benefit me for a long time. Like I said previously, my improvements in Industry were probably the main thing that I was able to improve on, but I also felt that another virtue that I did very well on was Resolution, as throughout the project I was able to stay focused on what I was doing. Another virtue that I did well on was Justice. I think this is something that I really would like to keep with me even after the project since being able to treat others objectively and not let feelings get in the way is something that is so important to successfully getting along with people. Although I did not do as well on Moderation as some of the other virtues, I felt like this is a beneficial one to keep with me. Being able to balance your life and not let any one aspect of your life take over, is very important to personal bliss and well being. Overall, despite some of my failures in specific virtues I still felt like I did a good job on my virtues, and they have given me many ways that I can improve my life in the future.

Late start was really nice today, and I got really good sleep. This was a great way to start my day. Although I was relaxed my resolution was still not very good. I think I was ready for break as I did not want to do any homework. Although I did not resolve to do much, what I did do was pretty industrious. I seemed to get what little homework I worked on done quickly. This I felt like has improved since the start of this project. I felt like my order was pretty good today because although I did not do very much homework, I still did homework, had free time, and had a doctors appointment. On moderation, I did not do very good, especially since I spent a lot of time on my phone today. This is probably because I am so ready for break also. On justice I did much better, and I think it was because I have been in a pretty good mood today, since I know that the long break is approaching. This good mood makes me feel more positively to those that I may have doubted due to how they previously acted towards me. Overall, I felt that this was a pretty good day despite my shortcomings. I still was able to meet many of my virtues even with it being one of the last days before break.

Today I woke up feeling pretty confident about my physics test. I knew that I had studied for ample time and felt that I was ready for whatever was put on the test. After taking the test, I still felt this confidence as I felt that I did pretty good on it. After this test I did not feel the same sort of resolution that I felt the day before when I was studying for the test. I didn’t have much homework, so I did not really feel motivated to do much after school. My industry was also bad, because the homework that I did do I did not do very efficiently. After my test I knew that I probably would not have much drive to complete my homework, so I decided to play tennis to try and do something productive. This gave me good order in my life as I set aside time for the things that are important to me. I did not have very good moderation especially since I did not do much homework and I spent a lot of time on my phone. Despite the issues I had on my productivity related virtues, I felt that my justice was good today as I treated my friends fairly. Overall, I had an unproductive day, but it was a happy and relaxing day.

Today I woke up pretty concerned for my physics test the next day. Although it was the next day, this unit was by far the hardest one yet, so I really wanted to be prepared for it. This concern gave me strong resolution to get all of my other homework done quickly to leave plenty of time to study for my physics test. I was pretty industrious also in my work, as I worked very efficiently on all of my work. On order I could have done a little bit better, by giving a little bit more time for my friends, but I was so hyper focused on my test that this was what I did for most of the day. I felt that my moderation was okay, because although I was good about not using my phone too much, I also did not do much else besides study for my test and work on homework. My justice was okay because I did not get any good opportunities to use it. Overall, although I was pretty hyper focused on studying it was a pretty solid day for my virtues.

Today I woke up feeling not much resolution to go to school, but I was able to wake up and go and when I got to school I found more resolution in doing my school work. Overall I would say that my resolution was average. On my order virtue I did a better job as I gave myself a good amount of free time, and left plenty of time for my homework. I was about average in industry as I was not particularly efficient, but I did get what I needed done in a reasonable amount of time. On moderation I was able to successfully moderate my homework and free time, so I would say that this was overall pretty good. Finally on justice today I would say that I did a good job, because there were no obvious examples where I would not give people that I knew equal chances, despite how they have acted in the past. Overall it was a pretty average day with most of my virtues being slightly above average.

Today I woke up late in the morning. This really helped with my mild illness, as now I was feeling much better. The only problem with waking up this late was that I felt very lethargic, and my industry ended up not being very good today as I was not working on anything very quickly. I did however, resolve to do my homework pretty early making my resolution pretty good today. I did an average job at order, but even though I gave proper time to homework, my lack of industry meant that this was the only thing I really did today. My moderation also wasn’t very good because all I did was work on homework and watch the Chiefs game, but at least it gave me a pretty relaxing day. My final virtue of Justice was hard to work on, because I really didn’t talk to anyone that I could have given due justice to. Overall, the day was mixed, but certainly not my best day for my virtues.

I woke up not feeling too great, but it was not bad enough that I felt I could miss my debate. As the day progressed I felt worse, but for lunch I had chicken noodle soup which helped me get through the rest of my debates. This was really the only thing I could resolve to do that day, because I felt like doing nothing else, but my resolution overall was fine because I did resolve complete my debates and try and make my illness go away. My order was not great, because I did not find time beyond my debates for what was important. My moderation was not very good either, because the only things I did today were debate at the tournament and sleep afterwards. My industry was ok mainly because there were no tasks that I did that I could have been industrious at. Finally, I did not have much time to use my justice, because I did not see anyone since I was not feeling very good.

Today was a pretty good day for me and my virtues. I started out with strong resolution in making sure that I was able to get my work done in class so I didn’t have to take much of it home. I also was successful with my order because I had a debate the next day, which I wanted to get good sleep for, and I was able to get that sleep while hanging out with friends and completing my homework that was due at midnight on that day. I felt that my industry was also very good because I was very focused when I did the assignment that was due at midnight and I did not waste much time on it. I also felt that my moderation went well as I was able to balance all of my daily tasks in an efficient and productive manner. On justice, I also felt that I did a good job with it because I was good at not letting my preconceived notions of anyone affect how I treat them.

Today I had a pretty busy day, but I was still able to keep order in my life through making sure despite my out of school obligations that I was able to get my homework done. I stayed resolute in keeping my goal of getting my homework done even with such a busy day. While meeting these goals was good to see, I feel that where I improved the most on was my industry, because usually when I have busy days like this I get home and start my homework, but then get distracted so much that I end up finishing my homework very late. Today was different in that I was able to get good sleep despite my busy schedule, as I was very industrious in how I got my homework done. This improvement was very good to see, because I often feel like this is why I tend to not have much free time is because of how inefficiently I do my work. I also felt that I did well in moderation, because I was able to still have some free time with friends before doing all of the obligations that I had. This was good, because it can be very hard to keep a moderated schedule when your schedule is full. On justice I felt that I did not do so great, because when I was playing dodgeball with my friends I thought that some of the people on the team would do better than others, but most of my assumptions were wrong.

Today, I got up early to study for my math test after staying up very late to study the night before. This showed strong resolution, because I was able to stay focused on my task of studying. Although I was resolute, This was almost to a fault, because I focused too much on this one math test and did not give enough order to my day in making sure that every aspect of my life was given time. This was especially seen in my lack of sleep, as I did not make any time for this. As far as my industry goes, at the beginning of the day it was good, but after my math test was over I lacked motivation and I was also very tired, so I did not do much afterwords. The day concluded well after school when I worked on giving my friend the justice he deserved in assuming he would work on an assignment that he said he would work on with me. He had not been very reliable for working with me on it, and he had put it off for multiple days, but today with this fair chance that I gave him he proved my previous assumptions wrong and worked on it with me.

Today I did very well, specifically in moderation, because I was able to control my phone usage with success. This was seen by my low phone usage during school and getting lots of homework done during the day because I was not using my phone much. This phone usage also continued during my time when I got home from school. Although this was mainly because of my math test which I studied very hard for and did not leave much time for my phone, it still was a success that I was able to manage it even with the stress of the test. On confidence I wasn’t as strong, but my industry was strong due to my efficient work at my homework. Also, my resolution was strong in deciding to study for my math test. My justice was also strong in that I was able to realize my bias I had against my friends normal habits, and change this to realize that the person can change as well.

I have chosen to undertake the goal of bettering myself on a virtuous level to help myself become a better person overall. This goal will help me with every aspect of my life when it comes to personal relationships as well as overall happiness and well being. If I am able to improve myself virtuously, I will be happier with myself and the people around me will be happier to be in my presence. I do not undertake this goal as some original idea, but am doing this in large part because of inspiration gained from Benjamin Franklin’s own strive for moral perfection. Although I acknowledge the difficulty in trying to achieve perfection, I do know that it is an admirable task that Ben Franklin himself found important enough to continue throughout his entire life. The knowledge gained from Franklin’s own experiences will certainly prove to be beneficial in helping me achieve my goals of bettering myself. Much of the reason for this is that Franklin and I have pretty similar desires to better ourselves and to be very inwardly reflective as to get rid of the internal problems that may cause us fault. Franklin himself described this as a very arduous task that is easy to fail. This own admission by one of the most important figures in history has forced me to mentally prepare for the task at hand. And really focus on specific virtues that I myself would like to work on improving.

I have selected five of these virtues which I have found to be the most important things on which I can improve myself around. The first virtue I chose is resolution, or being able to do with confidence what needs to be done. Often I will not do what needs to be done, because I will get too preoccupied with unimportant things, when I need to be focusing on the things that are important. The second virtue I chose was order, or making sure that I give everything in life its proper time. This goes along with resolution, in that having better order will allow me to really focus on finding what is important. The third virtue I chose was industry, or being as efficient as I can with what I do. I often waste too much time in my day not trying to be as efficient as I could be and this would help out immensely. The fourth virtue was moderation, which is not using anything to excess. For me I think that this would mainly be my phone and technology in general, as I really need to take more frequent breaks from them. The final virtue was justice, which I chose because sometimes I feel that if someone treats me in a certain way for some amount of time then I will not believe in their ability to change and I will not give them the fairness I would give a complete stranger. In conjunction all of these virtues which I would like to share with Ben Franklin will help me to become a better and more efficient person.

I hope that I will have similar success to what Franklin had with his virtues, and I think that careful observation and logging will be important to that success. It is easy to forget what you did in a day, but if you log it in some way you will have that memory with you forever. My hope is that I can come out of this virtue experiment as a better and more virtuous person. I think that it will all come down to if I can complete these virtues in the order that I listed because I can never focus on my justice if I do not have the resolution to make time for the important things in my day and leave time for focusing on virtues. If I can focus on each one of these individually and try and master each one before moving on to the next I will have the best success. I believe that overall I will have good success with this project, because it will force me to be more inwardly, looking at my flaws and where I can improve.