I’m convinced that to do anything even remotely approaching success, I must take an active approach to crafting my personality and personas. I must mold myself into the person I want to become. I’ve decided that the proper approach, taken from Ben Franklin, is to focus on one virtue for a month. These may not necessarily be the ones Franklin used, or match any set of classical virtues. The first virtue to cultivate is industriousness.

Written in pen, on the back of my hand, is the phrase, “Are you being industrious?” I’ve decided to utilize a technique from lucid dreaming. I would constantly ask myself, “Are you dreaming?” Eventually, this habit would find its way into my dreams. I would ask myself if I was dreaming, and then realize that I really was dreaming. Back when I found myself working on positivity, I noticed that even in my dreams I actively worked towards the goal of positivity. I gave advice to dream-people based on that paradigm. The goal with the industrious question is to be constantly mindful of industriousness. I want it to permeate my thoughts and influence my dreams. That will be when I know it has started to become part of my character.

Now, this does not mean I will become a workaholic. I’ll take a cue from Aristotle and say that industriousness is a mean. It is between being a slacker and a workaholic. I just want to be productive.

This is an experiment. I do not know if it will work or fail. I know that I did become a more positive person after actively managing that part of my personality. I am a perpetual procrastinator, though, so I may have trouble. I will work on it for the month and see if I become more industrious.