Benjamin Franklin Self Improvement Project

Between 1771 and 1783, Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography. It contains a lot of things that you would benefit from and is only about 175 pages long. Franklin could be called the granddaddy of self-improvement literature in the United States. His Poor Richard’s Almanac series included lots of stories and little advice for the common man. In fact, it was a collection of Yankee wisdom accumulated over decades.

Perhaps the most interesting and potentially useful part of Franklin’s autobiography is the description of his self-improvement project. As a young man, Franklin quickly came to understand his own weaknesses and the weaknesses of those around him that led to his failure. He was a keen observer and quickly learned those habits that led to his success as well.

At the age of twenty he set out to improve in a very systematic way. He first found out the qualities he found most important to cultivate, including temperance, silence, order, resolve, frugality, industriousness, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, calm, chastity, and humility. She then came up with a simple daily log and chose one of these virtues each week to focus on. His log contained a matrix with a list of the virtues he wanted to perfect in his life on the left side and a list of the days of the week at the top. Then he would mark a point or check each box when he did not meet his own expectations of the virtue he sought to practice that day. His goal was to have a week off from all brands showing success.

Franklin used this method from time to time for several years until he had perfected many of the virtues to the extent that this method allowed. While Franklin would have been the first to admit that he never reached perfection in any of these virtues, he was also known to have mastered several of them. As a young man, for example, he was known for being brash, argumentative, and rude. Over time, he came to understand how contrary that kind of behavior was to his own success. Through repeated self-discipline and efforts like these to modify his own habits and behavior, he became a man of great understanding. He became known for being a good listener, rarely one offering his own opinion and a man everyone appreciated and admired.

You can also use Franklin’s method of reflecting on your own behavior and habits and efforts to change them.

First decide what you would like to live to change yourself. Find what you want to improve the most in your habits, behaviors and practices. Then make a list and decide to focus on one of those enhancement items each week or month. Franklin chose a week because it seemed neither too short nor too long. You could do the same. Reflect each night before retiring on your day’s activities and write down any failures you may have experienced or any notable successes in your changed behavior. Each morning focus on what you plan to change and resolve to do so.

You will also find more success in this endeavor if you carry your little notebook with you and refer to it frequently throughout the day, both to remember what you are looking to improve and to make sure you don’t forget to record your success or failure.

You will discover, like Franklin, that while you are not likely to achieve perfection, you will change yourself in a way that will surprise you and pay off in your future success.

Try Benjamin Franklin’s method of change and improvement. It’s simple and it won’t cost you a penny.