Month: November 2021

Hello everyone!

I am on the plane back from Chicago and I think today was a good day to practice my virtues. Tranquility was alright for me today. I played in the semifinals of my tennis tournament and won but I was pretty nervous the whole time so I still need to continue to work on my breathing during matches. I lost in the finals so I got 2nd in the tournament and my tranquility wasn’t as good. 

Patience was almost the same as tranquility as when I get nervous or overwhelmed during a match, I get impatient and try to go for too small of targets and too big of shots.  I did pretty good at this during my first match but not very well in the finals.

Moderation was actually good today even though I played two matches. I got to walk around Chicago in the city and even got to go shopping and get ice cream. I am looking forward to taking the day off tomorrow and spending some time with my friends. 

Order was good as well as I did a good job getting packed and ready to go in a short period of time. I am hoping that I will be able to clean my room more now that I’ll be back in town. 

I also found a lot of joy in my day. Even though I lost my last match, I am still incredibly happy with my result of 2nd. Being able to see the city was also a major point of joy as well. Overall, it was a pretty good day!

Today was a spectacular day!! I woke up relatively early and edited some photos from the powderpuff game, which was how I worked on passion for the day. Then, I had a meeting with my friends regarding our Junior Board project, and we were very productive which is good. I didn’t practice much of patience today, so I am going to have to rate that a 0/5 and the same goes for academic acceptance, just because I didn’t have to worry too much about grades and school work over the weekend. However, I did a really good job with tranquility and moderation. I was hardly on my phone today, so I give myself a 5/5 for moderation, and a 5/5 for tranquility because I was completely happy and worry-free the entire day. I ended my night going to the Uptown Theatre with my friends to go watch ABBA Mania perform, and it was absolutely amazing. Although it’s a Sunday night, I like to look at the concert as a way to positively kickstart my week. That concert was a 5/5 and the vibe was so, so immaculate. I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!

Today was another medium day for all of my virtues. After waking up and eating breakfast I went rock climbing for an hour and a half. Exercise is a good way to release endorphins, and climbing adds difficult or fun routes to make it more interesting than just running. Because of that plus a lot of alone time today I think my tranquility virtue was fulfilled. Disconnection was a failure today though because outside of climbing I spent almost the entire day on my Mac or on my phone. Finally, my productivity virtues were middle of the road. While I did finish off all of my remaining homework for the weekend, I woke up around noon and didn’t start doing anything until around 4. Still leaving room for improvement, but getting better.

Order 2/5 – I didn’t do a ton to keep things orderly today, but I did try to avoid making more messes. Overall, not the best day for Order, but not too terrible either. I’m going to try to do better with this virtue over the next week.

Resolution 5/5 – I got the bulk of my painting done today, which was also the most boring part. I had to paint about 80% of the figure with two coats of the same paint, but I got it done. Honestly, despite being somewhat boring, this kind of thing is also super relaxing, so I was able to de-stress a bit.

Confidence 1/5 – Again, I don’t really see a way to work on this virtue over the weekend, so I think I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow.

Health 4/5 – I didn’t do any exercises today, but I did mow my backyard (hopefully for one of the last times this year). My house is on a hill, and my dogs have made my backyard a minefield of holes, so mowing is definitely not an easy task. It was a nice fall day, though, so at least I could enjoy the weather.

Responsibility 3/5 – I got some homework done, but only what I needed to do. I could have done more to make my workload this week a little lighter, but I decided to just relax for the rest of the night.

moderation- D

frugality- D

accountability- B

self-discipline- C

cleanliness- B

I had an all around average day as far as the challenge goes. I spent almost no time with my family because I had plans with my friends. I spent twenty dollars on dinner which is the most that I’ve spent through this whole challenge. I did make it to the gym today and my room is clean so I still did well on a few of my virtues. I also helped my mom clean the kitchen after school. I need to bounce back and have a better day tomorrow to get back on track.

Day 6

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin

My formatting for today will be a little different, as I really tried to focus on one virtue I felt I have been lacking in, which is patience.

With this being said, I would rate my contentment for today a 2/5, my silence a 5/5, my moderation a 4/5, and my tranquility a 2/5. My contentment and tranquility are a little lower as I did not journal, but I tried to think of them throughout the day. However, I did feel as though I mostly achieved my goals for moderation and silence.

As for patience, I would rate today a 4/5. I visited my dad’s work today to continue a project, and although not everything went as I had planned, I felt as though I was more patient with others than I usually am when I get irritated. With my virtues in mind, I really tried to be mindful of the things I said, and how they would make others feel. Instead of rushing into a solution, I talked with others first to come up with the best course of action. I ended up getting a good result, and it is starting to make me realize just how valuable patience can be.

I hope everyone has a good night!

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 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.

Today was a very successful day for all of my virtues. My Sincerity was a 10/10 because I got to go out to dinner with my family. My Frugality is still at a 10/10 because I have been saving my money instead of buying stuff. My Tranquility is 9/10 since it is the weekend and I don’t have very much homework. My Order has been great recently because I have been keeping track of homework. Lastly, My Humility is still a 10/10.

This is the first weekend day so far in the Ben Franklin project so far, and it went swimmingly. I got a good night’s sleep, waking up ready to tackle my virtues. After a late breakfast and some distractions, I only managed to do a little homework before it was time to head out for pole vault. After practice, I came back home and relaxed for a little while. Probably not what I should have been doing at the time, but I had no pressing homework and I was tired after a long running workout. Once the late night second wind kicked in I started on my homework and after a few hours I got a good portion of it done. To give the virtues a rating, it was C’s across the board. Not awful, but not great either. 

Industry: 5
Order: 1
Flexibility: 4
Resolution: 4
Tranquility: 1

I’m still a bit unwell today. I did not have motivation to do very much difficult work. However, I did work diligently on a hobby of mine for the entire day that entailed setting up old software. It was a very different and interesting sort of work. As I completed it, that gives me a good amount of resolution. I am still rating myself poorly on order because I was unable to do any school work. That will be important tomorrow when the deadlines are closer. I was not very tranquil at all because I spent 13 hours excitedly focusing on one topic continuously. Finally, my rating in flexibility comes from having to drive my parents around without complaining. It is usually difficult for me to do so because we always drive places to retrieve free puzzles and shirts. Overall, I am optimistic for the coming day and glad to have done well in this one.

“He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees.”

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736

(I think of that quote for patience. Hopefully, it can help you too).

Day 5

Tranquility: 3: I feel like my tranquility improved from yesterday. I continued my journal and I was able to find more things that I am willing to make peace with.

Silence: 5: Today, I took time to just hang out and relax for a moment. I sat in my room quietly for around 15 minutes. I was really stressed about my schedule for tomorrow, and being able to sit and relax helped me to calm down a bit. I have found this virtue to be really helpful towards my mental health and overall productivity.

Moderation: 5: Today was a great day! I woke up, met friends for breakfast, attended the powderpuff game to cheer on other friends, cleaned my room, talked with my sister, did homework, and went and saw a movie with my parents. (I would say The Eternals was okay, but the surprise at the end is the best ;)). I felt like I was really productive, but I also enjoyed what I did.

Patience: 3: I feel like I am slowly becoming more patient with others. I noticed it a little throughout the day today when I was talking to a friend of my parents, and when I was really focusing on what others had to say at another event today.

Contentment: 4: I am very proud of the progress I am making with contentment. Progressively, each day I am adding more and more things to my journal. Feel free to read!

Have a good rest of your weekend!

Today was an extreme between my virtues. My friends and I all got together immediately after school to hang out, and we all stayed together till around 12:45 that night. This of course meant that I got a grand total of 0 work done, so I completely failed my productivity virtues. This failure is tempered however with the mental health virtue successes. The occasional break is always nice for relaxation, and getting to spend time with good friends is one of the best ways to take a break. Spending all this time with friends also meant that I had a lot less time to spend looking at my phone, so my disconnection virtue was fufulled. I also didn’t have any homework due tonight, so giving my weekend up to productivity didn’t seem like that bad of an idea. Maybe I’ll try to be better about this in the future, but seeing as it probably won’t affect me in any way, maybe not.

Exhaustion, Stressed, Happy, and having fun all at the same time? Who knew that would be possible. Taking care of a baby has deprived me from my sleep, yet I enjoy this project. Taking care of this baby has let me enjoy the moments of fun, working on Liberality, I was having fun. The stress from the rest of my life is creeping up on me and I am beginning to feel the tension. So far I am satisfied with living in the moment and enjoying moments like these where I go out with my friends who also have babies this weekend. Moderation has worked well for me, I have been able to balance unhealthy foods, and eat them in moderation. Cleanliness has been hard, you know how it is for us new moms. I have kept up with skin routine, but when it comes cleaning my room, my child cries… Therefore my room is a mess, and there a need for a deep clean coming soon. Going on to my next virtue, tranquility. With the little sleep I have gotten, I thought I would not stay tranquil, I survived and I went on with my day with tranquility. I woke up this morning and went to volunteer at the food pantry, and had great conversations with people, which boosted my mood for the rest of the day. I would say overall I did quite well with my patience, and staying calm. Overall, I had a day full of excitement, and lots of babies crying. I managed oversee the bad with all the good that has occurred these past few days. Below are pictures of my baby waking me up early in the morning. Enjoy and Goodnight!

Today I focused on creative productivity and industry. Industry was definitely rough (it usually is over the weekends). I had a meeting at 12 today and got out of bed like ten minutes before I had to leave, showing up late. I have a major problem with staying in bed all day and staying awake all night on weekends. The staying awake all night thing isn’t really a problem, but I should probably work on getting out of bed before 12. I put off most of my homework for tomorrow, and since I’m working tomorrow night, I have definitely put myself in a bad position. On a positive note, I almost put off writing this until really late tonight after I finished my movies, but I told myself what a bad idea that was and sat down to write. So I’m proud of that and overall for today, I’d give myself a 2/5 in industry.

I was fairly creatively productive today and spent a portion of my day in the French Market in Prairie Village, working on my Frequent Friday. I’ve worked out the overall plot (although I need to delete a couple of characters and secondary locations for clarity and brevity) and can now start on the actual script. Obviously, total success would have been working on my script as well, but I think a little success is better than none. Plus I had to resist the serious temptation to go home, veg out on the couch, and read, which is usually what I do on weekends. I would give myself a 4/5 in creative productivity. 

Hello again!

Today was a really great day and was a good opportunity to practice my virtues. Tranquility was something I had to especially work on since I played two tennis matches. It is really important to stay calm and focused while you are playing in order to stay in every point. I did a great job of that today as I ended up winning both of my matches to be playing in the semifinals tomorrow! 

Patience is also something that was applicable to today while I was waiting for courts to open up so I could go on. I ended up having to wait for two hours after my scheduled match time to play and so I really had to stay patient in order to keep calm and relax before the match. 

The thing I am joyful about today is pretty simple as it makes me very happy when I win matches and make it this far in a difficult tournament. I am grateful that I get to play in the first place and it gives me extra happiness when it goes well.

Moderation was a virtue that I couldn’t really work on today as I was pretty much playing tennis and getting ready all day. Order was the same as I am still in Chicago but I have been doing a good job of keeping all of my things organized in the hotel room and keeping my suitcase clean. 

Overall, it was a good day for me and I hope it was the same for all of y’all!

Order 4/5 – I didn’t do much with Order when it comes to school, but I did clean up a big mess of papers that had been gathering in my basement for the past month. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job with Order today.

Resolution 4/5 – As of writing this, I haven’t done too much painting, but I plan on doing more in a bit. I had to do something that I’ve never done before with a figure, which is to do a base coat of black paint for the whole figure. The reason being that metallic paints don’t show up well on the normally grey surface of the figure, so painting metal portions black beforehand really helps them pop. Unfortunately, the entirety of this figure is going to be metal, so I did the whole base coat before starting anything else.

Confidence 1/5 – I didn’t work on this virtue at all today, unfortunately. I don’t know how much I can do to work on it over the weekend, as most of my issues with this one come from school. I guess I’ll just have to make up the deficit over the next school week.

Health 5/5 – I ate more today than I did yesterday, and I also tried to pick a more balanced variety of foods. I also did some simple exercises, though it was unfortunately too cold for a walk tonight.

Responsibility 1/5 – I also neglected this virtue today. I didn’t get any homework done, so tomorrow night will probably be pretty busy. I’m not too worried about it, though, as I don’t have much work to do this weekend anyway.

I started off my day by shooting the powderpuff game, which was a goal of mine and a way for me to practice passion. The game was super fun and just funny to see the cheerleaders and dancers play football instead of the football players, who were cheering. I got some really good photos which made me happy. After the game, I continued to be productive, and had a meeting at a coffee shop and got a lot of work done and got to see my friends. As for my other virtues, I find succeeding in tranquility is much easier on the weekends than during the week, because I have far less to do and worry about. However, I did not do well with moderation today, because I was on my phone for about 3 hours. It’s definitely more challenging to stay off my phone on the weekend because I have more free time. I didn’t focus much on patience or academic acceptance which is alright, I will do that tomorrow! All in all, I had a great Saturday and succeeded in practicing the virtues I most wanted to hone in on. I hope everyone had a great Saturday 🙂

I had a great Friday overall! I started my day at 5:30am and had a slow morning and then a relatively slow day. I barely have any homework for the weekend, which is always so nice. Regarding my virtues, I really only practiced tranquility, just by listening to the alarms I have set on my phone and starting my day extra early to have time to myself. I rate passion 0/5, academic acceptance 3/5, tranquility 5/5, moderation 2/5, and patience 2/5. I was really hoping to do something with my camera today, but I was super busy after school so I never got around to it which was frustrating. But, I decided to not let today discourage me from incorporating photography in my weekend, so I have decided to shoot the Powder Puff game tomorrow morning, which will be super fun! This is most definitely one way I will be practicing passion while also being able to see my friends. Along with practicing passion tomorrow, I am wanting to still improve on patience with myself and others :))

Industry: 4/5
Order: 3/5
Flexibility: 3/5
Resolution: 4/5
Tranquility: 1/5

Today was a day of surprising improvement for me. I’m a bit under the weather, so I behaved differently. This was beneficial for industry because I learned well in my normal classes and completed some tedious chemistry work. That might also count as a victory in order because I managed to complete my goal of finishing that homework. On the other hand, tranquility went awfully since my head hurt. I was not thinking very peacefully. It’ll improve in a day or so though. I assigned myself a good score in resolution because there was a chance I never would have completed that chemistry homework. Overall, I’m glad with how it went and look forward to the weekend where I may pursue more industry and time with my family.

Order 4/5 – I was able to get a better idea of what I need to do over the weekend, homework-wise. I don’t have too much to do, which is a nice change of pace from last weekend.

Resolution 5/5 – This was my main focus today. I now have a full color palette chosen for the figure I’m painting (picture below, though it’s a bit hard to see). I’m getting more and more excited to finally start painting it! I think this one’s going to turn out well, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Confidence 3/5 – I haven’t done much in the way of big achievements with Confidence, but I have been doing small things during my day to practice it. In particular, I’ve been trying to be more outgoing in school, as I am normally quite reserved.

Health 1/5 – I had a pretty terrible day with regards to Health. I didn’t get any kind of exercise done, which tends to make me feel generally physically bad. On top of that, I wasn’t really hungry for lunch, so I barely ate until I got home, and even then I didn’t eat enough.

Responsibility 2/5 – I didn’t get any work done tonight, but I like to just relax on Fridays. I think it’s very important to have a few days where you let yourself forget about work and just enjoy yourself.

Overall today was not my best day, which made it hard to boost my mood, considering it is Friday I thought it would be better. I have a lot to do in chemistry, which has stressed me out quite a bit. I am working on Liberality today, because I need to focus on taking care of the baby I took home for child development. I am trying to balance between my school stress, and having fun with this assignment. I have been struggling throughout the day to shake off my worries. My math test was grade today as well. I did not do very good, and I was not able to stay tranquil. Following my annoyance, it was hard for me to accept the grade I had gotten on my test. I chose to play positive music, hoping to boost my mood. It did. After a roller coaster of emotions, I took my baby to target and went on a little adventure, working on loosening up and having fun. When it comes to cleanliness, not much fell into that category other than eating. For lunch I ate a squash salad mix, and for dinner I had Canes, though I ate it in moderation. I am satisfied with the way I handled my control over eating. At the end of the night I am not satisfied with my day, but I was able to tie all of my virtues into one day. I have acknowledged what I need to work on, and there is nothing more I can do. I have accepted my thoughts and feelings. I am now moving on. I will work on meditation tonight, and a positive manifestation for tomorrow! Goodnight!

Hello from Chicago!

The plane ride was so peaceful that I was able to practice my tranquility and give myself the chance to relax and take a moment for myself with a nap. When I woke up, I looked out the window of the plane and saw the beautiful water of Lake Michigan. The small waves (if that’s what you call it since it’s a lake) in the middle of the water looked like little sparkles that danced on the surface, shimmering and glittering. I think that water is so peaceful and that one moment actually gave me a lot of tranquility. 

Moderation wasn’t really one of my priorities today since I went to school and then went to the airport to then play tennis in Chicago. In all, I couldn’t really work on this virtue today but I am also okay with that since it is not always possible to do that every day. 

I wasn’t able to work on Order that much today either in respect to cleaning my room, but I was able to keep everything straight when packing and getting all of my stuff through the airport and to the hotel. I won’t be able to clean this weekend since I am not at home, but I am aiming to keep all of my stuff organized while I am out of town. 

Patience was something that I had to maintain today as going through the airport is always a tedious struggle. Also the Chicago traffic is a nightmare in the late afternoon so it was difficult for me to wait without getting somewhere fast. I thought I did a good job with this virtue though.

Joy was good for me today as well. I found that just being in Chicago and traveling made me happy and grateful that I got to be here. The city is breathtaking and, even though it was freezing, it was still incredible to see. I am also happy that I get to play in a tennis tournament tomorrow and that gives me something to look forward to. 

I hope everyone had a great Friday!

Day 2

Tranquility: 3: I wanted to focus more on my journaling for contentment and tranquility today. I was able to pick my journal back up, but I still struggled to find things that I am okay making peace with.

Silence: 1: As I was more focused on tranquility and contentment today, I honestly forgot about taking some time of silence for myself. I was busy today, and I almost felt like I kind of had a one-track mind. I hope I can find some time to take this weekend!

Moderation: 2: My moderation wasn’t great today. I had a stressful day at school, and then I came home and did more homework. This weekend, hopefully, I can take time to enjoy my own hobbies.

Patience: 2: I did not really focus on patience today. I did feel like I was a little quieter than usual, but I didn’t feel any improvement.

Contentment: 4: I continued my contentment journal today and was surprised to find that my list keeps growing! I hope I can continue this trend, as it really shows me just how many things in my life are going well!

I hope everyone has a good weekend! 🙂

Today I worked on silence again. I had multiple positives and maybe a few negatives. Today at lunch I realized my brother switched our lunches. Instead of lashing out at him or making it a big deal I chose silence and decided it was not something to freak out about. I was actually very proud of myself because usually I would have made a big deal about that. The negative I had today was at dodgeball. I was arguing with a teammate and instead of choosing silence I. continued to bicker like a second grader. I want to work on limiting arguments and chose silence more often.

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.

Grades

moderation- C

frugality- A

accountability- D

self-discipline- B

cleanliness- B

Day three wasn’t as successful as the first two. I really procrastinated on my homework and didn’t finish my homework until around 11. It was also the first day when I cracked and ate some of my little brother’s Halloween candy. Although I still made it to the gym, the actual workout wasn’t as good as previous days. I didn’t have a chance to spend money today so at least I was good there. I had an off day today but I hope to learn and improve from this day. 

I think that today was one of my better days. It was late start Thursday which is already one of my favorite days of the week! I also had a very nice school day where I did not have a ton of overloading work, which let me focus more on my virtues. I chose to work on temperance today, because I was in the perfect environment for it. I was very relaxed, while also getting my work done. For the first time in a long time I got to go straight home from school and take a long nap in my bed, I never get to do that! I went to the dodgeball event later and it was so fun to see everyone play. I then came home and watched a show with my family, it was so nice to relax and not worry about anything for tomorrow. Overall I would rate today a 8/10.

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.

Today my main focus was to improve on my virtue of Sincerity. This week I have been very busy with sports and other events in my life and haven’t been able to spend time with my family. Today I made sure that I could spend quality time with all of my family members. For my mom we went grocery shopping together and ran some other small errands. It was good to talk to my mom about a lot of different things. For my brother I played a few hours of video games with him. This was a lot of fun and good for him because he really enjoys to spend time with me. For my dad I helped him with some yard work . We raked up leaves for a while and he was very grateful for the help. I would give my Sincerity a 10/10 because of the quality time I spent with my family members. I would like to continue to do this more often because it connects me to my family more. For the rest of my virtues, Order is 10/10, Humility 10/10, Tranquility 8/10, and Frugality is a 10/1o.

Day two for me was one with a bit more challenge. I had rehearsal for my musical that night, and rehearsal for another musical before that. I did not get time to clean my room, but I did still take the time to write my homework down in my planner. These rehearsals kept me busy all day, and gave me very little time to appreciate some time for myself. I did, however, approach my last rehearsal with a bit of a different attitude. I decided to, instead of treating it like a stressful experience, enjoy it and make it fun. It worked! I really enjoyed my rehearsal and got excited for opening night in two days.

Today was a really good day for tranquility. I had a test in math class and made sure to study so that I wouldn’t be freaked out during the test. Even though I didn’t really need to study for this test I decided to do it anyways and it helped me a lot more than I thought it would. It just refreshed my mind and allowed me to answer every answer with confidence. I would rate my tranquility a 10/10, and plan to keep doing this strategy. My order is still a 10/10, I’ve been doing a great job of keeping track of homework. My Humility is around a 7/10 because I was talking some trash during a dodgeball game. My Sincerity is a 4/10 because I wasn’t able to see my family very much. Lastly my frugality is still very strong so I would rate it a 9/10.

My motivation for my blog is to hold myself accountable for focusing on my self-selected virtues. By blogging about my virtues, I hope to better myself and strive for moral excellence. My relationship with Benjamin Franklin has been solely academic, as we learn about the basics of his life in school. While Franklin and I are from different centuries, he chose to focus on his virtues for his entire life in a similar way that I will be focusing on my virtues for the next two weeks. The blog will be a way for me to reflect on my progress and assess my pursuit of moral perfection in my five virtues.

The virtues I have chosen to blog about are cleanliness and tranquility, from Franklin’s virtues, and productivity, acceptance, and kindness, from my own list of virtues. I chose cleanliness because I tend to let my room get cluttered throughout the week, and then organize everything just for it to be messy again. A strategy I will use to achieve cleanliness is to take ten minutes everyday to tidy up my room, whether that’s making my bed in the morning, or putting away my clothes at night. Next, I want to work on tranquility, as I am not a particularly flexible person. I am stressed out a lot of the time and I want to find a way to feel more at ease in the next two weeks. To achieve tranquility, I will be meditating a few times a week and see how it affects my state of mind. I also want to work on productivity, but more specifically productivity of down time. When I give myself well-deserved breaks after completing a homework assignment or working for an hour or two, I usually spend that time mindlessly scrolling through my phone and not getting much benefit from it. With this experiment, I want to use that downtime to go on a walk, read, take a nap, or anything else that is a productive and relaxing way to spend my free time. Another virtue I want to attempt to perfect is acceptance. I am a perfectionist when it comes to academics, and I want to work on understanding that I am not perfect and that is okay. Whether I miss a few questions on a math test, or completely forget a homework assignment, I want to work on accepting that it is okay to be less than perfect. I will be focusing on acceptance mostly in regard to academics and tennis, and my strategy will be to keep a positive mindset. Lastly, I want to work on the virtue of kindness. I believe this is something important that everyone can focus on and I hope to work on spreading kindness myself. Each week I will complete three acts of kindness and blog about the positivity they spread and their effect on others and myself.

By participating in the virtue blogging experiment, I hope to discover strategies I can continue using to better myself in the future. While I predict it may not be easy to begin these new habits and work on five different virtues at the same time, I do think it will be worthwhile. In addition, by working on tranquility and acceptance, I hope to find more peace in my life and be less stressed out. While attempting to achieve moral perfection in these five aspects I aspire to spread positivity in other people’s lives and have a more positive outlook on my own.

Today was a debatable day for me. I participated in a fair amount of industry, but it was over some of the easier things I had allocated. So it was successful in industry, but not in order. My harder tasks that aren’t immediately due such as taking notes are still due. I have big plans for the weekend to work on both because that’s the best time to do so and I don’t have anything else allocated other than seeing nature and exercising. I’m also planning to work on resolution a bit during the weekend. There’s a computer project I’d like to continue working on while I have some extra time. Back to today, I did well at flexibility. I played a game I had never been exposed to before because someone else asked me to. Hopefully, the game clubs continue to bring me new experiences.

Today has been less productive than yesterday, and I am realizing that the virtues I chose will make for an interesting tightrope to walk. The balance between industry and tranquility is a tough one to get right. Too much work and I get burnt out, too much relaxation and I fall behind. And though today leaned close to an excess of relaxation, I did pretty well with my virtue of disconnection. After school I powered off my phone for 3 hours, but instead of doing work I lethargically sat around. When I got around to my homework it was later than I would have wanted, but since even days are my easy days, it didn’t seem all that pressing. All in all not a terrible day for the virtues, but it left lots of room for improvement.

so i kinda forgot about sticking to my things today and i regretted it.

Main focus of the day was order and i feel like i did really well in that. My day was pretty full of things to do and I didn’t have much time to think. I scheduled my day so i got in 3 full meals, and was in bed done with all of the things I needed to get done by 10 so in my opinion I feel like I really hit the mark.

Cleanliness: I did well today, i kept trash out of my car and made my bed in the morning, which seems small but it made me feel better about life.

Resolution: i was on time to everything i had today and i even made a phone call that i normally would have put off until last minute. I did everything i said i was going to do

Tranquility: i felt ok about this one, i didn’t let the fact that i had a lot to do get into my head and stayed up beat and on track as the day came and went, i will say nothing out of the ordinary happened so this one wasn’t quite the challenge it may be other days

Human: I casually set a boundary at work with times that i can work and times that i can’t, i didn’t even realize that i had done it until after i did it and thats kind of my goal. This was a really big step for me.

Joy was my main virtue of the day. I found a lot of joy in tennis today. I played with my coach for an hour and then went to a clinic with all of my friends. It was a great time and I felt like I really loved the game and the energy of the clinic and it made me really happy to play. Today was a really good day for me emotionally as I felt completely satisfied with everything that I had accomplished and I truly felt content. 

I had pretty good Moderation today as I made time for school, tennis, friends, and family. I went to school during the day and then to tennis, where I was with some of my friends and was able to talk to them and get social time. I came home and sat down and ate dinner with my family and then worked on homework. 

Order was okay for me today. I picked up some of my room and it looks slightly better than it did, but there still is more to be done. I hope that I get more time to do that once I come back from my tennis tournament over the weekend. 

I think that because I felt joyful today in almost all aspects of the day, I found myself being both tranquil and patient. People say that time flies when you are having fun, but I have actually found it to be the opposite. I think that when you take the time to enjoy the little things and take your mind off of all your stress, life starts to go by slower as you are savoring every moment and not letting a minute pass by. 

While this is not one of my virtues, I am also focusing on positivity as a part of this whole journey to moral perfection. I love to look at positive quotes every day to remind myself to stay focused on all the good things. From now on, I am going to include one of these quotes as an image to keep us all going on goals! 

I hope everyone had a great day!

After seeing some other posts, I’ve decided to start a ranking system (1-5) to get a better idea of how each virtue is going on any given day.

Order 1/5 – I didn’t do the best job of being organized today. I waited until I started going homework to figure out what I needed to do, which I try to avoid. I hope to organize what I need to do over the weekend tomorrow.

Resolution 4/5 – I finally decided on a figure to paint! I still have to pick out a bunch of paints before actually starting the painting process, but I’ll hopefully get a lot of painting done over the weekend. I’m really excited to commit to this process, and I think it will turn out well.

Confidence 2/5 – I didn’t really do much that was outside of my comfort zone today. I think this virtue may not be too easy to practice every day, but I’ll try to find a way in the future.

Health 3/5 – I would have liked to go on a walk again today, but the weather kept me from that. I did do some core exercises, but I definitely could have done more for health today.

Responsibility 5/5 – I’m pretty proud of how early I got my work done today. I normally laze around for a couple hours after getting home, but today I decided to just get everything out of the way so I could relax tonight. I finished homework at 5:40, which is probably the earliest I’ve ever done it. Its super relaxing to have a nice, calm evening for a change, especially because the last couple of days have been really stressful.

Grades

moderation- A

frugality- C

accountability- B

self-discipline- A

cleanliness- A

Day two of this challenge went about as well as day one. I focused on the same virtues as I did day one and again I was successful. Just as day one I completed all of my school work and homework in class so I had plenty of time to spend with my family. I still found time to clean my room and go to the gym after school. Before this challenge started I didn’t realize just how much time I had when I don’t procrastinate with homework. I feel less stressed than usual so I think today was a success.