QUANTA

Friday, January 3, 2014


How You, Too, Can Copy Benjamin Franklin

 
One thing that has helped me hold myself accountable is to keep a happiness-project self-scoring chart.
I lifted the idea from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. He recounts how he identified thirteen virtues he wanted to cultivate, then made himself a chart with those virtues plotted against the days of the week. Each day, he’d score himself on whether he lived up to his goals.
I’ve made a similar scoring chart—a kind of calendar with all my resolutions, in which I can give myself a  (good) or an X (bad)
We’re much more likely to make progress on goals that are broken into concrete and measurable actions, with some kind of accountability. This approach makes it easier to take action, plus it makes progress more obvious—which acts as positive reinforcement.
So has keeping a score chart helped me stick to my resolutions? Absolutely.
Even without taking the process of score-keeping into account, just reading the list of my resolutions a few times a day helps keep them active in my thoughts. A phrase like, “Give warm greetings and farewells” or “Cultivate good smells” floats into my mind at relevant moments.
Also, I think that making those little marks in a box does make me more likely to stick to a habit.Gold star junkie that I am, I crave the satisfaction of getting those checks! I’ve been trying to get over my need for recognition and praise, but it’s not easy, and that little bit of reinforcement makes a difference (even though I’m giving it to myself).
Keeping the charts has also helped me to understand myself better; I can see what resolutions I’m more likely to keep, and which ones I’m likely to break. (If you'd like to see a copy of my Resolutions Chart, to help give you ideas for your own chart, download it here.)
Keeping a scoring chart improved my behavior, but I’m still quite far from perfect. I comfort myself with the words of Ben Franklin, who reflected of his chart: “on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.
How about you? Have you found good ways to help yourself stick to good habits, or to hold yourself accountable? For more on this subject, check out The Happiness Project, chapter one.



(¯`*• Global Source and/or more resources at http://goo.gl/zvSV7 │ www.Future-Observatory.blogspot.com and on LinkeIn Group's "Becoming Aware of the Futures" at http://goo.gl/8qKBbK │ @SciCzar │ Point of Contact: www.linkedin.com/in/AndresAgostini