Earlier this year I made Benjamin Franklin my exemplar for 2016. That meant that I’d spend part of this year learning about his habits & practices and then implementing some. The idea is to learn from the wisdom of a great person and try to benefit from some of that myself. Two months into the year I’ve narrowed into a few things that stand out to me about Ben. 1. Pursuit of Excellence in His Craft Benjamin Franklins business & political success often draws back to a single asset he had available to him – his writing. He is cited by some scholars as being the best writer in colonial America. He used that talent to create a newspaper & almanac that drove both profited him and helped keep his print shop busy. He also used it to convince others of topics that were important to him such as the
The standard of living we enjoy on a macro level is always tied to hard work. That is the way we’re able to fight against the forces of nature in order to be able to control our environment, food supply, safety, etc. Historically, as far as I can tell, our standard of livings has always increased based on one of three things happening: Creating economic disparity Borrowing from another time Increasing productivity As I look at the standard of living I see around me, I see signs of all three. We could not afford much of what we use if it weren’t being created thanks to laborers making cents per day. We live in an economic system that enjoys the benefits of credit transactions that do not yet have a defined future end. We through ingenuity and hard work have created tools that let us do more with less effort.
Earlier this year I picked running a marathon in under 2:37 as my challenge for 2016. Because this challenge is very specific, I wanted to spend some time discussing my thought process behind it. I think it will help add context to this particularly goal and how I approach goal setting in general. Deciding On A Level of Difficulty The first thing I do when setting a goal is decide on how difficult I want it to be to achieve. I am an extremely competitive and motivated person so I like to pick challenges that will stretch me. I like to be scared that I won’t be able to achieve it so that I have to be resourceful in order to succeed. I like the process. Standing at the peak isn’t the end that justifies the means for me, it is the means for me justifying the end that is the