Part 1
Part 1. First, write down three ends (goals, activities, ways of being) that you consider to be intrinsically valuable. (It might help to return to your ultimate ends from the previous Exploration. You are welcome to use these as the ends that you consider to be intrinsically valuable, but you are not required to do so.) Second, identify the sort of actions that are necessary to achieve these ends. Third, identify the virtues that you need to be able to do each action well. Finally, review the list of virtues. Are there any that you think are especially important for you to develop at this stage of your life? Circle these. be less angry -- just allow people to mess things up. it's almost never that important. This requires self control be more patient -- actually live in the moment and give my full attention to what is going on. This requires temperance and focus be more happy -- set time aside to be grateful in my day. This requires flourishing.
This experience was interesting for me. There were several times where I found myself getting frustrated at something and I just let it go. This definitely leeched over a bit into my discipline; I wasn’t really frustrated with myself and it meant I permitted myself to let go a bit more. I don’t know if that was really a bad thing or how big the consequences of that were. I definitely enjoyed life more.
I don’t think this necessarily dipped into being reckless or irresponsible, but I was a bit hippie or mellow for like a week. I took longer to reply to people, and during active conversation I would just say “hm. let me think” and then really give some things serious thought. I think that during the week I became a bit quieter (which is good).
Habituation is difficult. I think on a long enough time scale, maybe a month, I would be able to make more concrete changes to my character and make those patient, quiet tendencies instinctual instead of somewhat forced. There was a little bit of bottling up frustration going on, but over time I think that would go away and transform into genuinely not worrying about whatever could be frustrating.
I don’t know if I really agree that ethical perception can be totally self developed. It relies really heavily on understanding others and working with the people around you to develop mutual preferences and understanding. While I think you can become a better person on your own, becoming the most virtuous version of yourself requires some external feedback and teamwork.
The doctrine of the mean is useful. I definitely noticed the excess side of patience and pleasure seeking when I felt myself becoming a bit lazy or complacent. That followed me around for a little bit as I fell into a bit of a depressive episode, and it was a bit tough to break and catch back up to the good part. I haven’t really felt strong consequences from it other than a bit of self judgment, but it’s generally ok, just not ideal. Becoming more virtuous is really challenging! I think if I took longer than a week to be more patient instead of diving into it all at once I wouldn’t have overshot the mark and been too relaxed. Small steps.
Did I enjoy it? Yeah. There was a moment where I was sitting on the highway in traffic and I just rolled my windows down and looked outside and appreciated the time I was given by the traffic to just observe. I didn’t get frustrated or go to distract myself with my phone… it was just tranquil. I felt happy.
