Matt S. Law Studios

Tag: growth

  • 13 Virtues

    13 Virtues

    Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, developed a system of thirteen virtues that he believed were important for personal growth and self-improvement. His thirteen virtues are:

    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

    Franklin strove to implement these virtues into his life by focusing on one virtue per week and tracking his progress each day. He kept a record of each time he violated one of the virtues and worked to correct his behavior. He believed that by focusing on these virtues, he could become a better person and contribute to society in a more meaningful way.

    Throughout his life, Franklin remained committed to these virtues and worked to instill them in others. He believed that personal responsibility and self-improvement were key to creating a better society, and he sought to model these values through his own behavior. Today, Franklin’s thirteen virtues remain an enduring example of the power of self-discipline and personal growth.

    I’ve met numerous people that have heard of Franklin’s 13 virtues. I’ve met only a handful of people that have actually ever tried to instill them into their lives. I’ve met many people that seek to improve their life in some way, but ever fewer that have a road map and a means to track their progress.

    What positive steps have you implemented into your life to improve your life? What virtues or character traits would you like to improve in yourself?

  • Leap Before You Look

    Leap Before You Look

    There’s something to be said for leaping before you look. Often people are paralyzed by indecision, analysis, second-guessing, procrastination, planning, pre-planning, pre-planning-secondary-analysis-comparison. We wait for perfect organization, the perfect plan, the perfect weather, the perfect social situation, the perfect alignment of the stars and planets.

    Here’s a better idea: Just start, then figure it out along the way.

    While this advice doesn’t pertain to activities that could potentially kill you (parachute first, THEN jump), with most of the activities and goals that we have in life, most people suffer from mental inertia. If you remember your Physics 101, “an object at rest remains at rest.” So if you are at a complete stop right now, the hardest part is getting started. But the other half of the law of inertia says this, “an object in motion tends to remain in motion.” Once you start a task, it’s much easier to keep going, to make adjustments to your plan along the way. Ever noticed how much easier it is to steer a car that’s moving compared to one that’s parked? Successful people use the law of inertia in their favor, rather than allow it to hold them back.

    So whatever project you’ve been putting off: Start!. In your life, you will regret most the things that you never attempted.

    What do you regret never attempting? (That’s an actual question, not a rhetorical one, I’d love to hear some answers)

  • Strengthen Your Core

    Strengthen Your Core

    I would rather be involved in a bad deal with good people than a good deal with bad people. ~John Sestina

    I apologize to those of you who landed on this page accidentally looking for proper plank technique. When I talk about strengthening your core, I am referring to the core of your inner self which will help you to have the proper alignment and foundation to succeed in all other areas.

    Your core is your character.

    When speaking or writing on personal growth I draw parallels between physical exercise and mental exercise; between athletic championships and personal success. So when I say that character is your core, I mean it is just like the foundational group of muscles that support the rest of you. If you have weak core muscles and only exercise your biceps, eventually you will injure yourself.

    Weak character will harm your development in finances, in relationships, in spiritual growth. You may be good at your job and spend a great deal of time exercising your financial muscle. But if that’s all you work on, eventually you will sprain a marriage, or strain your spiritual growth, or dislocate a relationship with your child.

    (Start humming Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin)

    No one wants to trust, associate or depend on someone of weak character. People are naturally attracted to those of strong character. The secret of success is character not talent. So…

    What are you doing to strengthen your core? What are you doing to exercise your character?

    Four score and two hundred plus years ago, Ben Franklin wrote about the method he designed and implemented into his life to develop his character. He created a list of 13 traits that he regarded as marking someone of good character. His 13 Virtues were: temperance, order, resolution, frugality, moderation, industry, cleanliness, tranquility, silence, sincerity, justice, chastity, humility. He focused on a single virtue each week and recorded his progress including his mistakes and failings in a journal. Over the course of a year he would spend four weeks total on developing each particular virtue.

    Frank Bettger, in his book How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, developed his own list of 13 traits that he decided to improve using Ben Franklin’s 200-year-old technique. His own list of 13 virtues were designed to help him become one of the greatest insurance salesmen that ever lived: enthusiasm, order, think in terms of others’ interests, questions, key issue, silence, sincerity, knowledge, belief in others, smile, remember names and faces, service/prospecting, and closing the sale.

    Frank Bettger goes out of his way to mention in the book that while he had met many people that had learned about Ben Franklin’s training regimen to become a person of character, he had never met anyone that had actually applied it to their life. I heartily agreed with Mr. Bettger, thinking to myself, “Isn’t that a shame that so many people would be exposed to such a font of wisdom and choose to ignore it, condemning themselves to a… Oh, wait, I guess I’ve never done it either.” (In my defense I did have my own personal growth plan which may have been discussed in a book I published called Feed The Good Wolf).So all that exposition was just to introduce you to the following bullet points:

    • Your success in any field of life will be determined by your character. Weak character equals weak core equals general weakness everywhere (and greater predisposition to injury).
    • If you are not consciously exercising your character, it is getting soft and pudgy. Just like your mind and body, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
    • Don’t just blindly decide to “get better,” set definite goals and follow a plan. If it helps, make a list of 13 virtues that you would like to improve. Schedule, work your plan, record your progress.
    • If you want to see drastic results, hire a personal trainer.
    • Photos of women in exercise clothing increase web page traffic. This has nothing to do with helping you to develop your character,  I’m just on my “honesty” week.