DH Lawrence was the first person to openly challenge Ben Franklin’s “Art of Virtue” method of defining yourself. To bad it was a century after Franklin’s time and right in the middle of the great depression!

Lawrence was disgusted in the idea of ‘the perfection of man’ and came up with a different set of behavioral goals to track values by.

For silence Ben Franklin had the goal ‘Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation’ whereas Lawrence wrote, ‘Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot’

For temperance Franklin wrote ‘Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.’ Lawrence wrote the more assertive, ‘Eat and carouse with Bacchus, or munch dry bread with Jesus, but don’t sit down without one of the gods.’

When it comes to cleanliness, here’s what the two had to say. Franklin boldly believed to ‘tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.’ Then Lawrence’s ideas on it were much more lax, “Don’t be too clean. It impoverishes the blood.”

So as you can see there are many ways that your values can be interpreted. So it is important to have them defined for your own piece of mind and betterment.

Be sure to check out these other articles:
Draw your own guidelines! - Learn the steps to develop your values and set measurable goals based on them.
Define ‘Value’ – I take you through the steps to bring forth and define your own values.