In my first book, Presidential Leadership, which focuses on learning from the strengths of U.S. Presidents and identifying, improving, and leveraging your own strengths, I closed with a Call to Action that includes the following story:
“In the mid-1700s Benjamin Franklin developed a personal system for cultivating his character by focusing on improving in thirteen areas, or virtues. After selecting and defining each virtue, Franklin charted them out in a little book, which he kept with him at all times. He devoted one week at a time to each virtue, committing on a daily basis to focus on practicing that particular virtue throughout the day. At the end of each day, he would spend a few minutes honestly reflecting on whether or not he had truly adhered to that week’s selected virtue. If upon reflection he found some fault in his behavior that day in respect to that goal, he would mark a small dot for that day on the chart in his book. He continued this process, day-by-day, week-by-week, for thirteen weeks, then began again, with the goal of decreasing the number of dots marked in his book until he could complete each week without adding any dots.”
While we might not want to carry around a notebook full of dots all year, I believe we can learn from Benjamin Franklin’s personal method to improve in specific areas through very intentional focus and repetition.
I firmly believe that careful and intentional repetition over an extended period of time is one of the most effective ways to absorb and internalize information and improve behavior and habits. So, rather than trying to accomplish something all at once or spending one extended period of time focusing on a task, it is far better to spend a shorter amount of time on it, take a break, and then return your focus to it again.
Repeating this process over the course of the day, week, month, or year (depending on your goals) will produce the results you desire and enable you to become more effective and successful.
So how do you create your own success system? Next week I’ll share 6 tips for creating and following a personalized success system to cultivate and leverage habits and achieve greater success—personally, professionally, and organizationally!
