Do You Want to Improve Your Life and Build Character in 13 Weeks?

Frank Bettger started his career playing in Major League Baseball. Where he met with mixed fortune. His baseball career was cut short by debilitating arm injury.

 Subsequently he started selling life insurance for Fidelity. However, his initial tryst with selling insurance was catastrophic. He was asked to resign by his manager. Dejected, he decided to turn his life around. One of the successful salesmen advised him to read the “Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”.

The book had a huge impact on his life. And from being asked to resign, he became the top salesman for 20 years with Fidelity. Later he wrote a best seller book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.

In the book he reveals, how the technique of creating a Virtue List, which he adopted form Ben Frank’s autobiography, had a huge impact on his life.   He modified the list with the virtues which resonated with him and put them into practice. As a result of his diligent practice he achieved astounding results.

While reading the book I was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue List.  This intrigued me to dive deeper into the concept and see if I could also use it.

Benjamin Franklin

He was an American entrepreneur , scientist, a writer, and a political figure. He was one of the Founding Fathers, who singed “ Declaration of Independence”. He also signed “Treaty of Paris” which ended war between America and Britain.

( For uninitiated it is him on the 100 dollar bill)

Like everyone else he also wanted to make his life better. To achieve that, at the age of 20, he formulated a set of rules which he decided to follow. That he named as Virtue List.

What Is The Virtue List?

The “Virtue List” was a set of 13 fundamental rules which Benjamin Franklin tried to practice in his daily life. He would pick up one Virtue from the list and consciously practice it during the day for the entire week.

At the end of the day he would record in a notebook how he fared during the day. The next week he would pick up the next Virtue and repeat the process till all the virtues were practiced. Then he would start the process all over again from the first virtue. This way he was able to practice every Virtue 4 time every year.

 Virtue List

Here is the list of 13 virtues he formulated for himself.

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.

 What Did I Do?

   ( P.S-I am not so handsome)

I went through the list and found the idea very good, useful and implementable. So I decided to make my own Virtue List ( I call it VL). Making the list was relatively easy but the actual hard part was practicing it.

This is what my virtue list looks like:

 My Virtue List-2019

1. Courage- Be brave. Take risk. Be assertive. It is better to live one day as a tiger than live 100 years as a sheep. Speak up your mind. Be just…fear none. Don’t worry what people will think. Don’t worry about consequences of your actions.

    2. Non-judgement- Move above duality. Do not label things as good-bad, pleasant- unpleasant. Observe the people and events as they are. Don’ judge people and things. Be detached and be neutral.

3. Industry- not wasting time. Make full use of your time. You have only one life, and limited time on this earth. Better make best use of it. Often ask yourself is this the best use of my time now?

4. Initiative and drive- Do things without being told to do. Be a go getter.    Walk the extra mile. Do more than you are paid to do. Cut across your roles and responsibilities and shoulder additional responsibilities.

5. Networking- Expand your social circle. Meet new people. Form a master mind alliance. Go to seminars etc where one can meet people and expand your knowledge. Take out time for family and friends. Talk to them on phone or visits them often.

6. Can  do spirit- not taking no for an answer/persistence. If someone has done it I can also do it. Be persistent with your efforts.Keep focus on your goal and do all it takes to achieve it wit out succumbing to adversities and temptations.

7. Visualisation and affirmations- Visualisation is a powerful tool. Practice visualisation in achieving your goals. Make use of theatre of mind technique for visualisation.

8. Introspection – introspect every day for 5-10 min. Go over your day, identify the good things happened to you. Also, see how you could have handled the situation better. Note down lessons learnt during the day in a diary. Also go though the goals you have set for yourself daily.

9. Tranquility/ Patience- not loosing temper. Don’t let anything and anyone make you loose your temper.Be in eternal bliss all the time. Practice meditation daily. Be detached to results, perform your duties without being too concerned about the results..

10. Listening Skill- Ask-Why am I talking before you speak. Listen to understand, don’t start narrating your story in response. Just Listen.

11. Mental and emotional strength-Don’ worry about what others will think. Do not get perturbed by criticism or rejection from people. Accepts rejection gracefully without getting affected by it. Don’t be a part of the crowd, stand apart from them. Don’t do what others are doing rather be a trail blazer and leave path for others to follow.

12. Quick decisions- Clarity of thoughts. Take quick decision. Move away from analysis paralysis trap. Taking quick informed decision is the hall mark of a great leader. Don’t worry about being wrong.

13. Frugality- Practice frugality in spending your resources. Think 10 times before spending money on anything. Buy what you need rather on your wants. Inculcate the habit of frugality in your children also.

How I practiced

I typed out my list, took a print and pasted it on the dressing table mirror. (I put it up there because everyone advises that it is the place where you will see it every day. Well they did not take people like me into consideration while giving out this advise. I rarely spend more than 5-10 sec. in front of the mirror. For me it was a wrong choice of place.)

I also downloaded the file onto my smart phone so that it is easily accessible. Every Monday I shall pick up one Trait ( I prefer using trait as Virtue sounds like a philosophical heavy stuff) and (try to) practice it during the week. 

In the morning and night I would go through my Virtue List and during the day also I would once in a while have a look at the list which I had downloaded on my mobile phone. 

In the evening I would open my excel sheet and record my performance during the day. If I was able to practice it even once I would give myself 1 mark and if I failed, then a big fat 0. The process would continue for the coming days and weeks. Sample of the excel sheet is appended below:

Virtue of the Week

Courage

Sr. No	Virtue	01-Mar	02-Mar	03-Mar	04-Mar	05-Mar	06-Mar
Be brave. Take risks. Be assertive. It is better to live one day as a tiger than live 100 years as a sheep. Speak up your mind. Be just…fear none. Don’t worry what people will think. Don’t worry about consequences of your actions.
1	Courage
2	Industry
3	Non-judgement
4	Frugality
5	Quick decision
6	Can Do Spirit
7	Initiative and drive
8	Networking
9	Mental and emotional strength
10	Tranquility and peace
11	Visualisation and affirmation
12	Listening skills
13	Frugality

Does it Really Work?

 Any list or technique is only effective if you put in required time and effort in practising it. By knowing something or thinking about something doesn’t make it happen. You got to dirty your hands, so to say, it is as simple as that

Have patience. Don’t expect quick results. There may not be any perceptible change at all, initially.  So do not get disheartened and keep practising. 

It’s a long grind, don’t stop your practice if you see some positive results. You have to guard against old habit patterns sneaking back. Forming new habits is hard but maintains them is harder.

It is said the awareness is the first step to transformation. Even though many a times I was not able practice the Trait but still I would be aware where I slipped up. Where as earlier, I was not even aware that I was doing something wrong. 

Like if earlier I was about to lose my patience, I would not even be aware of that and act automatically driven by my habit. Now I was aware that I am about to lose my patience and I must control it. Sometimes I would be successful in controlling it and other time not.

Yes, it produces results. 

I failed occasionally to implement the traits, sometimes forgot about it. However, even if the practice helped me to become better by just 1%, I am fine with it. Incremental changes over a period, shall contribute to bigger changes.

Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently-

Marie Forleo - Life Coach-Motivational Speaker-Author

 

I thought one week  too short a time to form a habit, so instead of one week sometimes I practiced for one month. However, when you are practising it for one month it is easier to lose focus and stop the process. You can improvise and practice it for 1-2 weeks or maybe 15 days or 1 month whatever

suits your temperament.

 What Should You Do?

• Develop your own Virtue List encompassing the traits which you would like to live your life by.
• Start practicing one trait every day for a week.
• Record your hits and misses in note book or excel, in the evening.
• To motivate yourself, use stick and carrot method. When you are successful in your practice continuously for a week, treat yourself to your favourite food or gift yourself something you like. When you miss your practice, deny yourself some luxuries of life, go for a long walk or a run, or do dishes at home or take your wife for shopping.
• You share the process with one of your confidants and hold yourself accountable to her/him. The individual can also ask you for regular updates.
• You can make your intentions public by sharing the list in the comment section below.

                                             

When are you planning to make your own Virtue List and start practicing?