Benjamin Franklin's 274-Year-Old Plan for Character Change

You may know him as a founding father of the United States, but he was also possibly one of the pioneers of the self-help movement, years before his time.

In 1726, upon return to Philadelphia from London, England, Franklin developed a "plan" for regulating his future conduct.

His plan consisted of 13 virtues, one of which he focused on for the week and evaluated himself as to his performance on a daily basis. 

Since he spent one week on each of the virtues, he was able to concentrate on each virtue four times per year, and utilized a small chart (see link below) to track his progress.

The 13 virtues and a short description of each: 
1) Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.

2) Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3) Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4) Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5) Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

6) Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7) Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8) Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9) Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10) Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11) Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

12) Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

13) Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.


How to Follow Franklin's Guide

Use the guide below to track how well you do in adhering to Franklin's virtues or striving to improve your character. Alternately, create your own set of virtues or character traits you want to improve.

Each column of the chart below stands for a day of the week. At the end of the day, evaluate your progress by putting a dot, an "x" or the number of times you failed to adhere to each virture.

Franklin's Book of 13 Charts

The Best Of The Best: A Resource That Could Save Your Life

Thank God that most people haven’t gone through what I have to get on with life.

What I mean by that is this: over time, I slowly came to realize that the biggest roadblock to success in my life is me. That’s the painful truth.

Have you ever heard the saying, “I’ve seen the enemy and he is me?”

I’ve found that I’ve got a lot of past baggage, or perceptions and beliefs that hold me back.

When you come to grasp this, you have a choice to make: should I stay or should I go?

In other words, do I choose to remain where I’m at, or do I choose to face my beliefs and get to work, so I can move on with my life?

For those of you who are at that place where they want to “get unstuck,” and have discovered that few, if any things have worked for you, I’ve got a resource that has literally been a lifesaver. And no, I don’t benefit in any way by mentioning it to you.

Here it is:

“The New Psycho Cybernetics: a mind technology for living your life without limits”

Keep an open mind, as many of you may not be too comfortable with self-help resources out there, even if it may turn your life around. I encourage you to try it. If you’re not comfortable buying the CD set, I believe Amazon.com has the book for a fraction of the retail cover price.
I highly recommend it.

I don’t say this lightly, as I’ve got a ton of self-help resources, and would say that most similar items aren’t on par or nearly as helpful as this CD set & guidebook has been for me. Be prepared for some deep, practical, hands on change coming your way if you choose to go this route.

You can get yours at nightingale.com, although you could probably find it cheaper on Amazon.com.

Healthy Eating Is Hip...& It Helps

The last few weeks (3 in fact) I've been eating healthier than I ever have in my entire life. I've gone vegan, well, vegetarian, at least for the most part. I don't know how people do it. But before you congratulate me, I have to admit It's something I've done out of necessity. No chicken, beef, pork, sodas, dairy, etc. It's been mostly a vegetable diet and I've gone virtually crazy coming up with tasty dishes that fit the bill.

The bottom line: I've lost almost 17 pounds. The health people I talk to say that it has a lot to do with cutting out the sodas. AMAZING! Also, I've been concentrating on taking great vitamins and other supplements.

I believe that physical health is a key component in success.

A balanced life is comprised of equal parts physical, emotional and spiritual health. If you don't have the physical, it's almost impossible to get the emotional and spiritual together. (more on this in a later post)

Here's a special reach out to the "BetterMeister" at www.iambetterthanu.com. He's been doing his own brand of health: largely cutting out sodas and drinking tea instead, for starters. Also, taking vitamins, well in his words, "manamins," in case anyone's wondering.

I know I'm definitely feeling better. The only negative: I no longer have jeans that fit.

For more info on health-related stuff, organic whatever, or basically anything that's "good for you," check out: www.diynaturally.wordpress.com. You might learn something--I know I did.