Thirteen Virtues

Benjamin Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of thirteen virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography lists his thirteen virtues as:

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 employ'd 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, cloaths, or habitation."
11. "TRANQUILLITY. 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."

(list lifted from Wikipedia)

By rotating the thirteen once per week, I will cycle through 52 items in 2010, and each will get it’s place in the front of my mind four times this year. I am going to start with these thirteen, but may amend the list to make it more of my own as I see things in my life that need attention.

I have added a 30-minute appointment to my Outlook calendar each Sunday for reflection and study each week. My intention is to post about my progress, but I don't want to commit to a complete post each week for fear of falling short on that goal. What are your thoughts on this project?

Who holds you accountable?

John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing just posted a really wonderful article about how to acheive your small-business goals called Who Holds you Accountable

I read through it, thinking that he hit me dead-on. I spend a lot of time in the evenings working on "Higher Ground Games" things, but never seem to get as much done as I need to.

Here are a couple of his suggestions:

• Start a mastermind group - Choose a select group of business owners from your local network of strategic partners or even industry peers and set-up a structure to share objectives and goals, critique marketing plans and materials and suggest ways to get better. Hold quarterly sessions as a group.
• [this could work for me with people like keebler/aba, itar, and the other Hirst Arts Liscensees... however, it may be a lot of work to set up and get running. I don't doubt the high level of accountability to a group like this, but wonder what other value there is in getting close to your partners/peers/competitors.]
  

• Track your time - Create time sheets and note how you spend your time each day. Assign a category of work, such as marketing, administrative, or sales. Then spend a minute or two at the end of the day and assign a value to that work - in other words what you would pay someone else to do it. You may be shocked at how unaccountable you are for the way you spend your day.
• [this one is a biggie for me... I know that I need to be at the casting table each and every hour, but I always seem to find one other painting/sorting/building/etc project that pushes that to 90 minutes or longer... then, before I know it I'm too tired to wait for one more round and I just go to bed with less done.]
  

I post here, in an obvious tie in to the fact that I could improve my uneasy feelings by simply recording data about what I do each night... simply put, better living through data!

New Years Resolution came early

Hello, and welcome to the new incarnation of my blog. . . now titled "Better living through data".

I plan to start the year tracking a number of different data points in my life, to help hold myself accountable to improvement over time. I have recently (okay, long) found myself desiring to improve, and even starting down many paths. However, they all seem to end up in the same place, with nothing much accomplished.

My initial thoughts for tracking come from a couple sources, which I'll share after the new year. For now, I'll give you my initial list of points that grabbed my attention.

• Time spent on certain activities (i.e. family, work, sleep, tv, etc)
  
• Disc Golf Scores / Courses Played / Etc.
  
• Mileage Milestones
• Beer List (Beer's I've tried)
  
• Travel Locations (level of granularity i.e. states, counties, etc TBD)
• Weight / Food goals
• Small Business progress ( www.highergroundgames.com )

This by no means complete, nor do I expect to find myself a year from now tracking each and every one of these... However, it's a start and it is now out there for you all to hold me accountable to. Please post in the comments if there's something else that I should be tracking that I've overlooked.