Ectothermal

Vices :: Virtues :: Habits

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

-Abraham Lincoln

It is becoming increasingly important to me to feel as though I have done something, have contributed some part of myself to the world I want to see come to life. It is disturbing to me even to write this, since I have a hard time describing what that world is.

I have (several times) tried to make my way through "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" or something similar. I always stall out in trying to define that all important set of values by which I want to live my life. Why?

I'm fickle. What if I change my mind? What if I have a set of values and realize on my deathbed that they've all been wrong, and then my "real" values only come to light in the last five minutes of life. I'm pretty sure that would be a total, albeit shortlived, bummer.

Seems kind of - I don't know - Pollyanna or something, doesn't it?

Conceptualizing one's values in a vacuum seems unnatural. At what point do our values take over? "I stand for X, therefore I feel I must do Y." My values are fluid, situational, conditional. Clearly, I can write out a value statement that encompasses all these things, but do I really want to write a novel-length value statement? I mean, writing this down is only step one. That leaves six more steps! Picture it: "Hey, how's the 7 habits thing going?"

"Hey thank you for asking. I'm on step 4. You can get a sense of my progress by reviewing the set of bound volumes on this bookshelf here... I'm particularly happy with volumes eight and nine. Volume 10 should still be considered a rough draft at this point.

But I've got to do something. I'm feeling a void where meaning should be in my life.

posted by Ecto Thermal @ 6:01 PM