Journal #6

1. Explain what was involved in Franklin’s plan for self-perfection? What conclusion did Franklin come to regarding the effectiveness of this plan?

Every one of his tools all built on one another meaning that the one before always helped the one that came after it to succeed. You can't have silence without temperance; you can't have order without silence, and so on. All of these virtues relate to one another and without all of them you will not have true success in your life. He began everyday saying what good could I do today and then went off that. He planned out his whole day in a 24 hour block using different hours for different thing like work, sleep, and a 1 hour lunch. And then at the end of the day he would ask himself what good have I don’t today? He came to the conclusion that if you plan your day out you can get a lot more done then if you just went with the way that your body told you to do things. You need a certain schedule to succeed.

2. Do you feel that a plan such as Franklin’s would improve you as a person? Why or why not? What would be your top five virtues?

I think that a plan like that would improve me as a person because instead of procrastinating all the time I would have specific times to get stuff like work done fully so I could then use the rest of the time for stuff that I enjoy doing. This would give me the freedom to not have to worry about getting the work done while I am trying to have a good time so I can just enjoy the time that I have on this earth and never waste it. Everyday would have a purpose to me if I woke up saying what amazing things could I accomplish today? My top 5 virtues are first cleanliness because you can't get anything done in a dirty environment, moderation because you never want to do anything too much because it could be unhealthy, humility because you can't always think that you have the answer to things and everybody need help sometimes, sincerity because everyone needs friends to help them get through life, and finally and order because without order it is almost impossible to be productive.