Learn the right things

Everyone knows this "uncle" in the image on the hundred dollar bill. Almost everyone knows the phrase “Time is money,” which Ben Franklin once said. There are many facts from his interesting and surprising life. Most people do not know that Franklin was not yet the president of the United States, although he was very actively involved in writing the Constitution of America. There are many rumors about Freemasonry, world order and so on. More information about him can be found in the Wikipedia article.

I would like to quote a very interesting passage from his diary today. Today it is fashionable to write about how much to do, how to be effective, how to organize a business, etc. etc. Unfortunately, as Stephen Covey noted in his book “The 7 Skills of Highly Effective People” (I would not have read it myself because of this title, but my friend highly recommended, read the book, very satisfied) today's literature on management and personal effectiveness comes down to simple recipes for solving standard problems. Something like aspirin for all occasions. You rarely find a book or an article affecting the deep motives, principles of the inner life and integrity of a person. But now is not about that ... I want to share an excerpt from the diary of Franklin. This man has achieved a lot, he rose from the bottom of society without having a formal education, and I am sure that much can be learned from his life.

“Around this time (1730) I planned a bold and difficult plan for achieving moral perfection. I wanted to live, without ever making any mistakes, to conquer everything that could be pushed by my natural inclinations, habits or society. Since I knew — or thought I knew — what was good and what was bad, I did not see a reason why I should not always follow one and avoid the other. But I soon discovered that I had set myself a much more difficult task than I had anticipated at the beginning. While my attention was focused on how to avoid one mistake, I often unexpectedly made another; ingrained habit manifested itself, taking advantage of my carelessness; the inclination was sometimes stronger than reason. Finally, I came to the conclusion that a simple, rational belief that it is best for us to be completely virtuous is not enough to protect us from blunders, and that before we achieve sustainable, constantly moral behavior, we must eradicate in yourself bad habits. For this purpose, I developed the following method: I identified with thirteen names all those virtues that seemed necessary and desirable to me at that time, associating with each name a brief instruction that fully expressed the scope of each concept.
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Here are the names of these virtues with the appropriate instructions.

1. Abstinence. - There is not to satiation, do not drink to intoxication.
2. Silence. - To say only what can benefit me or another; avoid idle talk.
3. Order. - Keep all your belongings in their places; for each class have their time.
4. Determination. - Decide to do what is supposed to do; strictly comply with what is decided.
5. Thrift. - To spend money only on what benefits for me or others, that is, not to waste anything.
6. Hard work - Do not waste time wasting; to be always busy with something useful; give up all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity. - Do not cause harmful deception, have clean and fair thoughts; in the conversation also stick to this rule.
8. Justice. - Do not harm anyone; do not commit injustices and do not omit the good deeds that are among your duties.
9. Moderation. - Avoid extremes; restrain, as far as you think it appropriate, a feeling of resentment from injustices.
10. Purity. - Prevent bodily impurities; observe neatness in clothes and in the home.
11. Calm - Do not worry about trifles and about the usual or inevitable cases.
12. Chastity. - Be chaste in thought, control your instincts.
13. Modesty. - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Conscious, in accordance with the advice of Pythagoras, expressed in his remarkable verses, the necessity of daily self-control, I came up with the following method for its implementation. I started a little book in which I selected a page for each virtue. Each page I lined with red ink so that it turned out seven columns by the number of days of the week; each column was marked by the initial letters of the corresponding day of the week. Then I made thirteen horizontal lines and marked the beginning of each line with the first letters of the name of one of the virtues. Thus, on each line in the appropriate column I could, by proper verification, mark with a small black dot each case of violation of the corresponding virtue during that day.

I decided to give strict attention during the week to acquiring each of these skills in the sequence indicated. Thus, in the first week my main concern was to avoid the smallest violation of abstinence; the other virtues were left to chance, I just noted every evening the blunders made during the day. If during the first week I managed to keep the first line marked “B” clear of dots, I concluded that the skill in this virtue was so strengthened, and the opposite skill was so weakened that I could venture to expand my attention and include in its scope the second virtue is to keep both lines free from dots for the next week. Continuing up to the last virtue, I could complete a full course for thirteen weeks, and four such courses in a year. I decided to act like a man who, wanting to weed out his garden, does not immediately try to destroy all weed grass, which would exceed his capabilities and strengths, but he works at the same time only on one bed and passes to the second only after he has cleaned the first one.

I would like my descendants to know that it is to this little invention, with God's blessing, that their ancestor owes the constant happiness of his life up to the present when he writes these lines at the age of seventy-nine. ”

I try to follow most of them. Of course, not because Franklin wrote this, they are just human. But it was interesting for me to read about it in his autobiography. What do you think about these principles? What principles help you live fruitfully and happily?