Attendance is the first of the 3 A's

Following the 3 A's can get you through life.

What is Attendance?
The act of attending.
The number of persons that are present.
How often a person is present.

If you don't show up you can't play or win.

In all the activities have been involved in it was amazing to me that a number of persons could not understand why they could not succeed by only showing up part of the time. From those that wanted to play sports or succeed at work, those that complained the most about being held back where the ones that attended on a part time basis. But just showing up is not all there is to attendance.

Part of the word itself is Attend meaning;
To take care; give attention:
To apply or direct oneself:
To pay attention:
To remain ready to serve.

So not only do you have to be in the right place but you need to watch and do the right things.

Watch for the next posts in this catagory to find out what the other A's are.

Ben's Second Virtue

Ben Franklin continually wrote in his autobiography about improving himself. In his book, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, he listed 13 virtues. With each virtue he gave a brief description on how he interpreted it second came;

Silence
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

I wish I could say I was practicing Silence; it’s been a long time since my last post on this subject. However I allowed life to crowd my schedule and have just been unable to get back until now.

When I have taught the Communications Merit Badge to Boy Scouts the first thing I include is that they have two ears and one mouth. That means to me that listening is twice as important as talking.

In his Ben’s autobiography he mentions his inclination to prattle as he gets older and sets about to improve his ability to stay silent and learn what others might be able to impart of their experiences and knowledge. In his explanation I think that he means if you can’t add beneficially to the conversation remain quite and let others say what they will. By making sure that you say nothing except what will benefit others it also helps you to refrain from gossiping or detracting from others. Also by not speaking when we are not certain of our facts we practice

In his explanation I think that he means if you can’t add beneficially to the conversation remain quite and let others say what they will. By making sure that you say nothing except what will benefit others it also helps you to refrain from gossiping or detracting from others. Also by not speaking when we are not certain of our facts we practice The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions) , his observation of Silence was; “The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it”.

What do you think?

Franklins First Virtue Temperance

I found that Ben Franklin continually wrote in his autobiography about improving himself. In his book, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, he listed 13 virtues. With each virtue he gave a brief description on how he interpreted it, the first was;

Temperance - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

Ben devised a plan to develop further the virtues he listed and started with Temperance. He determined that trying to work on all of the virtues at the same time would not be beneficial so he would focus on each individually. Since keeping a clear mind would be necessary to continue his work on the others as they came into focus he started with Temperance.

Temperance is the virtue that controls the desire for pleasure. It manages every form of enjoyment that comes from the exercise of human desire. Pleasure follows all natural activity the most intense are from the pleasures of food and drink.

Most Judeo-Christian religions consider Temperance to be one of their main virtues, I am not well versed in other religions but am certain that the other religions of the world would consider keeping a clear mind virtuous.

Even though Ben does not mention it I am sure that today in our world we should include other things that would cloud our minds in our struggle for Temperance. Recreational/Legal drugs and prescription medications are two that come to mind. Caffeine and Nicotine even though legal can alter the mind. To make the proper decisions at all times we should have complete control of our entire self.

With the obesity crisis we are facing in America today I found it interesting that Ben would mention eating as a part of Temperance back in the 1784. I have seen people that are out of control of themselves after over eating.

In sharing my thoughts with you I hope that some of you will comment and expand the conversation and understanding of each of the virtues.

Journey to a Fulfilled Life

Like a lot of young people when I finished high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I tried several jobs and some education at the local community college. At the time I had no goals I was trying to achive and decided the education was just a waste of time. It took me about 6 years to find a career I really wanted to pursue, however once I began to progress as a carpenter I was approached to help others in the field by becoming a representative for the Carpenters Union. I was reluctant at first but was persuaded to give it a try because of the skills and knowlege I had aquired.

I soon found that even though I had some skills they were not sufficient enough and needed to find a way to improve myself. When I attended my apprenticeship classes in carpentry at San Jose City College, with the help of the Labor Council, I began attending the Labor Studies Courses. I completed all of the available courses at the time and received a Certificate of Completion in Labor Studies in 1986.

While at San Jose City College I was introduced to several sources of self improvement. One of the first that I came to think of as a basic course in how and why to improve myself was Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret Ever Told. Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret - Book and AudioBook (For Download).

These past years I have done a lot of reading on improving myself. Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" has been an inspiration to me. It is a great guide for the traits that can strategically help a person to develop into the person they want to be. I was so taken with the book that I also purchased the The 7 Habits Signature Series - 7 CD Set to listen to in my car. In my job I spend a lot of time traveling and found that listening to the Cd's is a great way to remind myself of the "habits" and ways to achieve them. Although it is not one of the 7 Habits Covey talks about the P/PC balance in life. This encouraged me to keeping in better touch with my family and getting myself back to the gym to be certain that I had the energy and drive to to the things I needed. Covey also informed us that we should be living our lives by principals.

I found that Ben Franklin continually wrote in his autobiography about improving himself. In his book, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, one way he talks about improving himself is in what he calls the list of thirteen virtues that he sees as the best to live his life by. In reviewing and after a lot of consideration I think the list of Franklin's virtues fits into my life very well.

So my resolution for this year is to examine each and write about them hear. I will be sharing my thoughts with you and hope that some of you will comment and expand the conversation and understanding of each of the virtues.