1-17). In my opinion, Franklin was a genius. I would be thrilled to accomplish even one percent of what he did in my own lifetime. .
Benjamin Franklin "conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection" (Davis, 2006, p. 263). In this selection from his autobiography, Franklin outlines in great detail his elaborate system to rid himself of all of his bad habits and faults. Michael Ditmore (2014) stated that, "Part Two of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography – often called "The Art of Virtue -- is surely the most popular (and detachable) section of Franklin's most enduring writing" (p. 70). To briefly summarize this part of the essay, Franklin lists thirteen of his faults and bad habits, and sets up a table to track his progress in eliminating them one by one. The table is set up with the seven days of the week across the top horizontally, and the thirteen "deficits" along the left hand side of the paper vertically. In Franklin's project, he would focus on only one deficit at a time, but would track all of them by placing a mark in the corresponding column when he recalled an infraction. His plan was to master his faults one at a time, gradually cycling through each deficit over a period of thirteen weeks, and repeating the cycle until he was free from all of his faults (Davis, 2006, p. 263-269).
Benjamin Franklin's thirteen deficits were as follows: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility (Davis, 2006, p.264-265). In my opinion, all of these are worthy goals; however, for my own project, I decided to alter Franklin's goals to fit my needs. I chose to start with the following nine goals: frugality, silence, order, industry, tranquility, temperance, charity, health and (attention to) family. I defined my goals as follows in the form of yes or no questions:.