Ben Franklin's Virtue of Frugality

Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue of Frugality. 

Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself;

 i.e. waste nothing.

Frugality is defined as the quality of being frugal or prudent in saving. Saving in consumables such as food, clothing, gifts, money and time! Yes TIME is a consumable as it ticks away never to be used again.

Being fugal means to be lacking in wastefulness. 

Every man’s waste can be another man’s treasure. We discard food when there are hungry famished children, women and men. We discard clean water when there are people drinking dirty parasite infested water. We throw away clothes that don’t fit when there are naked and cold people wishing only for comfort and not brand labels. We toss away gifts such as books, cds, dvds, trinkets as sentimentless items that we can no longer use, when there are people who would love to escape to another world through reading, use a cd as a reflective decoration or a trinket as inspiration for an unrealized dream. 

With such commodities I encourage you to regift, recycle, reuse, and reduce your waste. Nothing is trash. 

But TIME, time can only be wasted or used by you. People can steal and rob you of your time. We all have a pile of books to read, archives on our Nook or Kindle, a list of movies or tv shows to watch on Netflix, a full inbox of email and voicemail awaiting replies.  Where somewhere there is a man with no concept of email, voicemail, Netflix or ereaders. His time is spent dreaming and surviving. 

Our To do list grows and when we try to do everything, we end up doing nothing.

Time is money. Cutting out many items on your to do list will enrich you beyond expectation so you can really do what matters. Last time I checked having watched every season of Breaking Bad did not get you a certificate, medal or job (unless perhaps the President of the Fan Club provides your meals)

How can we live a virtue of frugality? Prioritize. Cut off the meaningless. The meaningless will get you nowhere. The meaningless have no return.  Recyle, Reuse and Reduce in everything.

Live for your Priorities. 

When deciding your priorities remember a few rules of life;

1.       Thoughts become things.

2.       You get what you give.

3.       Love is the answer. 

If you wish for me to expand on these rules, leave a comment and we’ll chat!

Ben Franklin's Virtue - Resolution

Resolution

Now was this not predestined to be my topic of today?! Here is one girl that has not stuck to resolve to write this blog.  

Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue of Resolution had two agreements:

1.       Resolve to perform what you ought.

2.       Perform without fail what you resolve.

These virtues relate to our attitudes toward activities and the challenges or opportunities they present. Good character builds from virtue. 

In my particular case I could cite a bunch of issues as to not writing this blog; building my own business, hunting new territory, being CEO to my household, and helping my friends reach some pivotal goals. BUT, I am a no excuses kinda gal. Excuses give us reasons to continue with poor behaviour, versus RESOLVE to perform! 

Resolve is defined as to decide firmly on a course of action. 

Decision making can be easy; sticking to the action, affording your discipline to perform what you have decided is another beast. A beast it is because I have seen some keen sharp people discipline themselves so tightly it must ensure success. Take for example the athlete, persistent with physical, mental and social work outs. Each day a repetitive cycle, they grind over and over to achieve another personal best. That takes a beast. Another form of beast; the advocate, a warrior for justice, rights or moral servitude awakens each day to resolve their performance again. Their battle whether in the court room, on the field, or in the streets. 

 

 So for those of us lacking resolve, getting off track, slipping ... how can we create resolution in us?

I think the best method to initiate resolution in life is to live with intent. Intentional living sets before you the actions, attitude, and performance desired and needed for the next day. Intentional living involves the practice of resolve and discipline to perform each day, as one must to succeed at the stated intent.

 

Starting each day with intent, sets your day up for success.

Discover

I have found a new obsession with the dictionary. I find too often I am using words that perhaps have a different meaning that what I wish to represent. I am a fan of accuracy and therefore I have set out to research words that strike me as important.

Today I embarked on a big step in my journey. I took the step of faith out and started my own company. Happy Birthday to Joanne Feather the brand.

In doing so I needed to relay my mission. I have been thinking on this for some time and then today it came to me. My main intention has been discovery. To discover all the things I do not know.

So today I examine the word DISCOVER. 

To discover is to see, find, or become aware of something for the first time. Just as Christopher Columbus sailed out and discovered the world was indeed round and not flat. Discovery is so joyous, celebrating something that comes to awareness for the first time! 

To discover is also to show the presence of something hidden or difficult to see, make something unknown known. This resonates with me something fierce. The universe is exactly this. In reference to the Bible I find some of my favourite awe-some scriptures

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”Hebrews 11:3

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

Discovery of the unseen results in substance being manifested.

To discover means to learn or find out.  

Discover has a large amount of power in how we live our life. Discovery provides us a way to learn and make changes for growth, improvement, and new found awareness.

Discovery is the first step in making your dreams into goals, and those goals into realities.

Open your mind to all the possibilities around you. Soak up the opportunity and Rise to Discover the new found you.

Make it your intent to discover something new today... maybe you too will open the dictionary and even more wonderous create something.

Step One to Conquering a Fear - Acknowledgement

Over the Easter weekend I challenged myself very last minute to begin the first steps in overcoming a fear of mine that has been with me for 25 years. I just did the math and I feel ashamed that I have allowed fear to rob me of independence for 25 years.

I am also ashamed to now see the people I encountered along the way did not open to kindness to support and cheer me on to conquer my fear. In fact they enabled the fear to continue. Now that is another story and detailed more in my book that I am currently writing. 

So there I am last minute heading off for a weekend of challenge and facing a 25 year old fear head on. To accomplish the end result and meet the final challenge will take some time and I am documenting it. I hope it will inspire others to look inside themselves and avoid allowing enablers and fear to stop you.

You know why I am facing this now, all the enablers are gone. With the enablers gone I was able to be my own cheerleader and support. I AM all I need. If I was always alone I know this fear never would have existed in me. Interesting how that works, and how I see that so clearly now. 

Over the course of the weekend many angel alerts came to me.  An angel alert is a sign, something so prominent, something that cannot be pinned on coincidence, something that is not luck. An angel alert is the universes divine energy announcement. 

A beacon to direct your path. Visions of desires in my heart were overflowing. The energy was magnificent. 

Not only was my weekend fear facing challenge pushing me through my fear, it was enlightening me on my journey. This fear was a huge block in my journey. I now believe it is one of the most significant detours in my life and has affected every area of my life, and I ignored it for too long. 

This energy overload pushed me to write about this fear, and so birthed a new book. Writers block had been troubling me for months. The time was now for the birth of my story, volume by volume. I was empowered and fuelled writing until my keyboard broke. 

Devil’s intervention.  A broken keyboard on a laptop! What? I couldn’t even log on to my computer. Not to worry, I will plug in my keyboard and away I go. That worked until now when I opened up my laptop again only for this plug in not to work. Well I got it working.  Someone really does not want me typing, and go figure my only writing utensils are pencils and sharpies. 

The reasons I share this are many;

1.       Do not let fear paralyze you.

2.       Do not let others enable your paralysis. Surround yourself with people that will indeed lift you higher.

3.       Be alone, you can do it all on your own.

4.       Know you will have obstacles placed in your way.

5.       Know the obstacles are temporary.

6.       Do not let anyone tell you your desires, dreams, or wishes cannot come true. 

Now go look in the mirror and face your fear head on.