Personal Growth Plans, Day 7: The 13 Virtues of Benjamin Franklin

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” – Sir Rannulph Fiennes

I left you with the charge of developing a list of virtues you want to live by.  This post is merely to give you a concrete example of a list of virtues, and hopefully some inspiration to make your own.

It seems like this might be a whole lot of work for a Personal Growth Plan, eh?  I suppose it is.  But after 2 years of sifting through advice, programs, and methods for personal and professional growth, I found that your Plan must have a center point to revolve around.  It is your call and your character.

The character portion seems to be the hardest to stabilize.  I promise you though, as you begin to work certain virtues into your life, not only will you be able to actually begin to reach your goals, you’ll be able to identify and destroy some of the things that have been holding you back.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Ben Franklin, in my opinion, was one of the most extraordinary men who have ever lived.  His accomplishments were immense.  In fact, the ones that we are used to hearing about – the kite and the lightening, bifocals, the Franklin stove – are miniscule when you look at the whole of his life and influence.  Early in his life, he decided that in order to become the man he wanted to be he was going to have to work on his character.  See, Ben Franklin was no saint.  He had what I like to call, “a certain moral flexibility.”  And he knew it.  And he also knew it was going to be the single thing that would bring his potential to a dead halt. So he created a list of 13 virtues that he wanted exhibited in his life and disciplined himself to establish them.  He developed a system of evaluating his progress on establishing these virtues, and wrote about it in his Autobiography:

I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish . . . But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it;

~ from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, p 41.  You can read the entire book here.

FRANKLIN’S 13 VIRTUES

1. TEMPERANCE – Eat not to dullness; 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; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS -  Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILITY -  Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. 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.
13. HUMILITY – Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

He created a little notebook to record his progress for each virtue.  Each week, he would focus on a particular virtue.  Every time he failed to demonstrate it, he’d make a mark in his notebook.  The goal was to reduce the number of marks per virtue to no marks at all.

13 Virtues, 1 per week, repeats itself exactly 4 times a year.  13 x 4 = 52.  52 weeks in a year.

Bravo, Ben, Bravo.  The left half of my brain applauds and thanks you.

KATE’S 13 VIRTUES

So here’s what I did.  I looked at the virtues that were in my life, but more at the ones that were not.  I created my own list of 13, which was hard because I actually created a list of 15.  But that doesn’t fit into the above equation, so I had to do some clever rearranging and rewording to make it a list of 13.

You certainly can have more or less.  I, however, cannot.  If you’ll note, “senseless lack of mathematical order” is not a virtue that I am pursuing.

I bought a Moleskine for my notebook.  They sell them at our Barnes and Noble and they aren’t terribly expensive.  Quite inexpensive, actually if you consider the quality.

I arranged my notebook exactly like Ben Franklin’s. But not quite.  It looks pretty much the same, but I’m tackling it a little bit differently.  I focus on one virtue per week, but I record my progress for each.  This way, I’m not tempted to ignore or excuse the virtues I’m not paying special attention to.

Here is my list. You can see that I’ve taken some directly from Mr. Franklin, and some are uniquely my own.

1. SILENCE – Speak not what may benefit others or yourself
2. ORDER –   Let all things have their places and times.  Support Chronos and Kairos.
3. RESOLUTION –   Resolve to perform what you ought.  Perform without fail what you resolve.
4. STEWARDSHIP -   make no expense but to do good to others or yourself.  Waste nothing.  Be fruitful and multiply all God has given.
5. JUSTICE -  Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.  Let mercy always triumph.
6. SINCERITY -  Use no deceit.  Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
7. TRANQUILITY –   Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.  Be thankful in all things, anxious in none.
8. HUMILITY –   Imitate Christ.  Know your strength, yet temper it with the Gospel.
9. CLEANLINESS -  Tolerate no spiritual uncleanness in body, home, church, or region.
10. ENJOYMENT -  Love God, love His works, love His ways.
11. FAITH -  Risk your person, possessions, security, and reputation on your knowledge of His will and your belief in His ability to do it.
12. GENERATIONS -  Make choices today for the thousandth generation from tomorrow.
13. EXCELLENCE -  Be ever employed with presenting the Lamb with the reward of His suffering.

One last thought:  you may be wondering why I didn’t just list the fruits of the Spirit.  I could have, and I thought of it.  However, what I wanted was to identify the areas of my life that needed cultivation.  Establishing these virtues in my life will yield spiritual fruit.  The virtues are simply my means of positioning myself to cultivate spiritual fruit.  For example, the seeds of self-control for me do not lie within “Temperance”, they lie within “Tranquility” and “Silence”.  The love I know the Father wants cultivated in my heart has much to do establishing a generational mindset in me.  And so on . . .

I hope this helps you create a list of virtues for yourself.  Of course, you are free to come up with your own method.  However, sometimes the best starting point is imitating what has already been done.  As you begin to develop a habit of it, you will also develop a method of your own.

The important thing is to not approach a Personal Growth Plan as something linear . . . a list of goals to move towards.  It should expand the breadth of all you can be – it should develop the Kingdom within you just as it is developing the Kingdom around you.

“I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” -Diane Ackerman

For an indepth study on applying Franklin’s 13 Virtues to your life, check out:

ArtofManliness.com and their series on Franklin’s virtues.

(See?  Virtues are manly.  Art of Manliness says so.)

Another great reference, and one that Art of Manliness used,  is Flamebright.