Virtues: Good Habits to Form

Virtues are Habits of the Heart. They point me to the "good life" where genuine happiness is the ultimate end. We definitely need virtues to make a comeback today. As a young man, Benjamin Franklin picked 13 virtues he believed would help him mature and be responsible. He made a list and practiced these virtues daily.

The 13 virtues and his objectives were:

TEMPERANCE: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

SILENCE: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

ORDER: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

RESOLUTION: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

FRUGALITY: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

INDUSTRY: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

SINCERITY: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

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

MODERATION: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

CLEANLINESS: Tolerate no un-cleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

TRANQUILLITY: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

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.

HUMILITY: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

A few years ago I decided to pull a "Benjamin Franklin" and devise my own lists of virtues. The virtues I picked helped me with some troubling areas of my life that I needed balance. One area that needed balance was between "joking around" too much and being "sober minded." I needed to practice keeping quiet and so "Silence" and "Moderation" became a couple of the virtues I picked to practice.

Once a habit is formed, it becomes embedded in your character and then it pre-disposes you to act accordingly. Virtues, as habits, govern your "mind", your "will", and your "soul". This is why virtues are good habits to form.

So pull a "Benjamin Franklin" yourself: find a list of virtues and pick a few that you can practice daily. Give yourself 3 months practicing these few virtues and see how your life is different.

“Temperance” the Virtue of the Boomers

I Tweet! Nobody tweeted in my Dad's generation. It's even difficult to say "I Tweet". I'm a "Boomer." My boy's tell me I'm cool because "I don't try to act cool or "phat" or "sick" or whatever the hip young lingo is today-whatev!

Truth is, I'm ok being a youthful 50 year old guy, who doesn't take himself too seriously-life's too short for all this naval gazing. But you will never see me wearing "Docker" short pants that come just above the knee, a cheesy Hawaiian shirt and a fanny pack. Nor will I wear a T shirt that say's "I Dated Your Girlfriend." (But I do wear a sweatshirt that say's "Old Guy's Rule" just to remind the kids I'm not dead yet.)

50 is a key age. My friend Jennifer say's we're not "ratcheting it up" we are "ratcheting it down" in regards to our career goals. My friend Perry said "turning 50 is like sitting on a mountain peak, where you could look in the distance 30 years and see 80. Then turn and look 30 years behind you and see 20". 50 is the equi-center-my task is to find a balance between feeling like a 25 year old and not acting like one-enter the Virtue of Temperance.

Temperance is a cool virtue for a 50 year old guy like me. Temperance keeps me balanced between being creepy and being cool-it forces me to use "reason" before acting on my impulses. As blogger Doug Mc Manaman say's "It brings order to the emotions of love, hate, sensible satisfaction, desire, aversion and sorrow as they bear upon a pleasant good." http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/education/ed0281.html

So I will tweet with temperance and try to put my thoughts in 140 characters-yikes.