The Tao of Ben Franklin Virtue #1 -Temperance
Benjamin Franklin, it could be said, was America’s own Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a polymath for sure. He was a skilled writer, statesman, inventor and by all accounts one of the brightest individuals of his day.
If you wear bifocals, you are connected to Mr. Franklin. Ever had to use a catheter? That’s Ben also. What about electricity? Well, we all know that one.
We also hear about Franklin’s exploits in France. He was an unfaithful husband, sired a child out of wedlock, and paid the price with a syphilis. He was in no way a perfect man. That is to say, although extraordinary, he was also very ordinary.
He also might have been the first ever self help expert. At a minimum it could be argued Franklin penned the very first self help book of all time. It seems Mr. Franklin was not only one of the fathers of America but one of the first livers of the “Improve always in All ways” mantra. Allow Mr. Franklin to explain.
AS I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ’d in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderation of every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occur’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave it its meaning.
In Franklin’s ‘Book of Virtues’ he lists 13 virtues to adopt. His goal was to develop a method to make these virtues a habit.
““Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.””
The 13 virtues were as follows:
Temperance-Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
Silence- Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
Order-Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution- Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality- Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing
Industry- Lose not time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions
Sincerity- Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly
Justice- Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation- Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness- Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquillity- Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable
Chastity- Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
Humility- Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
As humans we tend to do the things we don’t want to do and neglect many of the things we wish to. It’s not unique to Franklin. Even the apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
How many times do we vow to not do a thing only to find ourselves doing that very thing days or even moments later? Well, don’t beat yourself up. If Benjamin Franklin and one of Jesus’ apostles struggled with it then why the heck should we think we wouldn’t?
Franklin determined the best way to combat this was through habit. He understood how our brains worked before we even understood how our brains work. The brain is a prediction machine. The brain loves to save energy and do what leads to the least amount of resistance. This is why habits are so powerful. They require little energy on the part of the brain. Automaticity can be developed.
What Franklin was trying to do is remove as much struggle as possible. He knew left to his conscience devices he’d very often make the wrong decision-he do what he didn’t want to do. However, if he could make the thing he wanted to do a habit, he would create a strong hedge against failure.
James Clear lays this out incredibly well in his book ‘Automic Habits.’ Having the benefit of over a century’s worth of neuroscience at his disposal, Clear was able to scientifically explain what Franklin was intuitively discovering.
So many think just by knowing the right thing to do we are likely to do it. Even though we have plenty of personal evidence that this is absolute nonsense. It’s like the people who refuse to write their goals. They ‘know’ them but they can’t show you anywhere they’ve committed them to paper or what inputs they have developed to reach them. Therefore, the likelihood of them achieving these ‘known’ goals are slim.
Franklin states, “As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other.”
Like the apostle Paul, this confounded him. Being the curious individual he was, Franklin wanted to explore this and take care to remedy it.
In this 13 part series of articles titled “The Tao of Benjamin Franklin” I want to explore not only his 13 virtues but the protocol in which he went about achieving them. I want to leverage the resources now available from neuroscience to help the reader find ways to stop doing the things they don’t want to and start doing the things they do. With any luck it will become automatic.
Virtue 1-Temperance
First, let’s make sure we all have a definition of temperance as a reference point. What exactly does it mean to exercise temperance? This is the abstinence from alcohol. It is also used as a term of general self restraint.
Franklin wrote in his book of virtues, “Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.”
I suppose the best place to begin is at the beginning. Franklin was not the first to conceive of this idea. In fact the old saying, “everything in moderation” is from the ancient philosopher, Kleovoulos.
Personally, I think we Americans have the greatest trouble with this. Everything we eat here has the ability to be super sized. Our buffets are legendary. It was an American company that invented the ‘Big Gulp,’ a tank of soft drink capable of satisfying the thirst of an elephant.
This modern day habitat we find ourselves in makes temperance one of the toughest of the virtues to execute. We just have so much of everything to choose from. So how do we exercise Franklin’s first virtue with success?
First, we must do as Franklin did and decide it is in fact a virtue. Stuffing ourselves and getting drunk is not good for us nor does it feel good long term. One of the ways I was able to abrogate drinking from my diet completely was to reframe what it meant to drink. I became obsessed with clear thinking, never letting myself lose my tongue and aging as slowly as possible. I also associated drinking with hangovers. I never wanted to feel hungover.
It wasn’t just making ‘not drinking’ the goal, it was making good health, longevity and consistency the objective. I associated all the good things I could think of with not drinking. It would save me a ton of money at restaurants. I would never have to worry again about being pulled over after leaving a social gathering where I had been drinking. I knew I would sleep better. Drinking alcohol is one of the single biggest sleep disruptors there is.
I rarely attend social engagements. However, when I would drink at one I would obsessively recount the night the following day wondering if I had said something I shouldn’t. It also allows me to listen more. So often when we hear a hot topic of the day in conversation we feel compulsively compelled to weigh in. This shows all our cards sometimes to those who don’t always wish us well. This is when we’re sober! Put alcohol in the mix and we become experts on faith, gun control, the environment, cooking, how to best poach an egg and who the most talented Jonas brother is.
I determined fewer words were better. Listening was the goal. I decided I wanted to go to parties or other events with a goal of being sober minded, ready to learn and never replying to another with passion. I wanted others to leave my presence and be able to say, “That guy really knows me and cares about what I had to say.”
I also wanted to learn something. It has become more important in social settings to learn than teach.
One of my favorite stories is from Andy Stanley, son of the famous preacher Charles Stanley. Any once said how surprised he was when people would meet his father they would immediately start talking about themselves. It’s as if they wanted one of the most famous preachers to have ever lived to learn something about them. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ask them questions while you have them there?
I’ve experienced this first hand. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with a certain U.S. Senator. It’s funny how people will come up and immediately start telling him all about how great they are as an American. They want him to know their story. It just seems to me the wiser thing is to learn rather than teach in these moments.
Franklin explained it like this. “Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations.”
Drinking and in particular drunkenness is known to enhance the proclivity for bad habits. How many people have woken up in a bed residing at an unknown address with another person whose name they couldn’t recall? Yikes.
Franklin described how he had started regularly ‘pratting, punning and joking..” He didn’t like the company this attracted. He wanted to be in company with people he could learn from. He wanted to reduce those occasions in which he just entertained with his jovial disposition and instead had serious meaningful conversations.
What about overeating? Do you like feeling stuffed, full and unable to move? I hate it. I actually like it less than being hungry. It’s a feeling I now try to avoid. Executing temperance in the face of a big, rich meal is a time to conquer oneself like no other. There’s something about food that puts us in a mindset of scarcity like nothing else.
Part of this is ancestral. Our brain is actually designed to feast. Our brain, not knowing whether it’s 2022 or 2022 B.C., is designed to make us crave food so we will feast and not starve. Once we realize this we can proactively train the brain to not feast. There is no scarcity of food.
Our brain doesn’t naturally know we have an abundance of food for later. The desire to binge is a survival instinct.
Even if you are at a fine restaurant, you must tell yourself, “Everything here is abundant. If I want I can come back and order this exact same thing tomorrow.” By reminding yourself that you live a life of abundance you are less likely to behave as though you’re on death row consuming your final meal. There will be another meal no matter how good the present one is.
Game the incident. Make a game of looking beyond the meal. How good will you feel after the meal when you aren’t bloated, gassy and regretting the intense spike in your glucose levels? How good will it feel to know you have conquered your mind and your appetite? Say to yourself Zeon’s quote, “He who conquers his mind conquers the world.”
And therein lies the key factor of temperance. It's controlling the mind and self. I’ll repeat it, “He who conquers his mind conquers the world.” We know Franklin studied the Stoics and most likely came across this quote. Maybe this is why temperance was the first of his virtues. Maybe Franklin’s ultimate goal was to conquer the world-the world that was his mind that is.
Franklin didn’t realize it but he also began one of the most tried and true methods of habit formation. He kept a tally. He created a clear and daily method of keeping score of his wins and losses in this cause.
“I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.”
Here is what the table looked like:
Eat not to dullness
Drink not to elevation
After creating the chart Franklin then resolved to focus on each topic for a week giving it special attention. He determined trying to take on all the tasks at once would be too daunting. However, he did mark the others when he failed to live up to his standard.
His goal was a blank grid every week. This is where I take a different approach than Franklin, having the benefit of studying neurochemistry. One of the best ways to start a habit is to create short feedback loops. Franklin’s little book with its chart in it was an excellent start. However, he set it up so he would tally all the ‘wrongs’ he committed against his stated goal.
This made the journal somewhat of a punishing exercise. It was like having to give himself a spanking every day. Instead I would suggest marking the days in which you live up to your standard. This trains the brain to do the right thing in anticipation of the dopamine hit that comes from marking the good action.
It further starts a visual of streaks. This can be extremely powerful. Jerry Seinfeld has a practice of writing for no less than one hour every single day. When he was a young comedian he began keeping a chart in which he would make an ‘X’ for every day he would fulfill his commitment to write. Once he had a long streak started he refused to let it end.
“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”
That little ‘X’ gives our brain a small hit of dopamine, the same chemical released from doing cocaine. It’s incredibly powerful. It’s the pleasure chemical that drives much of human action. Why? It’s because pleasure is a powerful motivator.
If you can train your brain that exercising temperance and self control leads to putting an ‘X’ in the book, which signifies victory and then dopamine is released your brain is more likely to crave this task. This is how a good habit is formed.
There was a certain genius to not trying to tackle all the virtues at once. Franklin described it as a gardener deciding to only weed one garden bed at a time. To try to weed them all would be overwhelming. It’s the same here. Don’t overwhelm your brain. Give it a small target to become laser focused on. Where attention goes, energy flows. Make a point to drive energy to the first task.
I have a motto to “Improve always in ALL ways.” The reason it’s open ended with the word ‘always’ is because I realize perfection will never be reached. This idea came to me while reading Walter Isaccson’s biography on another Renaissance man-Leonard Da Vinci. In this biography I first learned of Vitruvian Man.
This was Da Vinci's attempt to draw the perfectly proportioned man. When I read this I began questioning what the perfectly proportioned human would be beyond the physical. What attributes does the perfectly proportioned human have spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally? How would one set out to reach perfect proportions in these areas?
Thus began the Vitruvian Project which would eventually lead to The Jason Wright Show, my training company and I suppose this article. One thing that is striking about Franklin’s book is its humility. He is willing to readily confess his failures.
He documents how difficult some of the virtues were to uphold. It appears Franklin was a relatively messy guy. He did not allow this to cripple his effort. He realized the pursuit of the endeavor, not the achievement of the endeavor gave him great pleasure.
“I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it..”
I think here Franklin makes a very good point. Often we set out to pursue perfection or ultimate victory. When we realize it cannot be obtained we tend to lose sight of what matters most. The endeavor made us better than before. As the old adage goes, “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of great.” Pursuing excellence in any task or behavior will naturally lead to a better you.
Franklin made a strong point to not point to any ‘religious sect’ in coming up with his book of virtues. He made a point to write the book so it could not be reasonably rejected by any follower of any religion regardless of what that religion might be.
However, it’s worth noting as a philosophical matter the virtue of temperance does in fact mirror at least one element of the doctrine of Christianity. In Galatians it reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
I think temperance is a perfect euphemism for self-control. Notice Franklin didn’t attempt to become a teetotaler. He didn’t refer to any diet. He simply suggested knowing the proper limit and not extending beyond it. It’s guardrails such as this that can be of incredible benefit in our life.
I think it’s also worth noting he made a point to begin his exercise of temperance with food and drink consumption. There’s something about these two that are seemingly the hardest to control. However, if we can sit at a feast and only eat our fill or be at an open bar at a wedding and limit ourselves to one or two drinks, then there is a good chance we can slay other dragons of lesser power.
It’s worth repeating, in the effort to develop a habit of temperance, “He who conquers his mind conquers the world.”