In his autobiography Ben Franklin talks about the thirteen moral virtues and acquiring habits surrounding them. Basically over thirteen weeks he focused on one virtue a week. Each week he kept a tally of when he made an offense against the virtue as he strove for a clean slate. This was because a clean slate equated to strengthening of that virtue and as a result he would move closer to fulfilling his wish. The wish being to live without, at any time, committing any fault. In short he was focused on replacing bad habits with good habits. Something that Og says is a “key” to success.
“I will form good habits and become their slave.”
Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World
In the Master Key Experience (MKE) we are in the midst of what is known as the “Franklin Makeover”. It’s based on Franklin’s model described above with a slight variation. Our focus each week is noticing a particular virtue being exhibited by others and marking it on a tally sheet. The goal is lots of marks because as the law of growth states, what we think about grows! In other words if want more self-control, courage, persistance, decisiveness, etc you need to focus on it and see it all around. A very important aspect is to do so with vitality since the decision to focus on something starts as a thought. And constructive thoughts,
“will possess vitality; it will have life, it will grow, develop, expand, it will be creative; it will attract to itself everything necessary for its complete development.”
Charles Haanel, The Master Key Experience
The results can be astonishing, especially if you’ve shared what is being observed, as was discovered. Let me explain.
Among the many items emphasized in the MKE is the power of a mastermind alliance and sharing. In a mastermind alliance with one, two, or many observations, goals, actions to achieve dharma are shared. And there are many opportunities to establish a mastermind alliance in the MKE. So for week sixteen everyone had the virtue of kindness. The requirement was to share individual observations of acts of kindness and shoot for a goal of 4000 observations during the week. The goal was hit and so rewarding to see because in a world of negativity, the power of kindness can sometimes be lost. So it was a terrific reminder that acts of kindness can go a long way to making things better. And to top it off hugs were the theme at the end of the week!
Check out some the great recaps of Kindness week by fellow MKE members!
Philip’s Wild and Crazy Adventure
John Eide’s Master Key Experience Blog
What will week 17 bring? Excited to find out.
Great post about the Franklin makeover and thank you for mentioning my blog post
[…] experienced the joy of Kindness week last year I knew what was in store so it was a week I was totally looking forward to. It is in […]