I performed the Distance Exercise “Diary of Virtues” in several stages, namely:
1. In 3 weeks, I wrote about 250 virtues according to the scheme: event — manifested positive qualities (usually more than 10 per day). I tried not to repeat myself. Entered the data in a spreadsheet. There were 89 original merits. In various events, some qualities were repeated.
Analyze your strengths. It turned out that some important ones are too rare (creative, creative, quick-witted, resourceful, inspired, sunny, positive, joyful, grateful).
2. I began to pay attention to these qualities consciously, changed the algorithm for recording merits, first began to highlight the merits, and then remember where I showed it. It turned out that I do it regularly. This allowed me to increase self-esteem in my eyes in this area, and to understand that I show a wide range of virtues and successes, but some I notice and appreciate more than others.
After the analysis, I came to the conclusion that the spontaneously written list of advantages turned out to be incomplete and not sufficient to achieve my goals.
3. I supplemented the list of advantages by analyzing the reports of other distance athletes. Added to my list some areas that were missing. In total, 120 original characteristics were obtained, and it became clear that this was far from the limit. She kept a diary of success for another 15 days, adding the virtues shown during the day to a spreadsheet.
4. When the total amount became more than 450, I conducted an analysis and highlighted the advantages that I noted most often and the alleged reason:
Caring (21) good daughter (11) — as circumstances are developing now (elderly parents), Responsible (18), diligent (16), carrying a healthy lifestyle (15), hardworking (14), conscientious (14), purposeful (13 ), self-responsible — as I study at UPP. (Introduced a new concept: self-responsible — responsible for their actions, thoughts and feelings to themselves, or rather, taking responsibility for what I feel, think and do. The difference from the traditional «responsible» is that I usually «responsible» associated with responsibility towards others).
5. Having seen the result, I realized that I most often highlight the following qualities — responsible, conscientious, diligent, hardworking.
On reflection, I came to the conclusion that the priority allocation of these qualities may also mean that these qualities are objectively inherent in me, and equally these may be the qualities that are most difficult for me now, and therefore I notice them most often. These qualities are not manifested in all areas of life, but basically in everything related to SCP.
6. Decided to analyze the list by category. I divided all the virtues into categories that seem to me necessary to achieve success in my goals for 1 year and 10 years, namely Diligence, Responsibility, Sunshine, Leadership, Health, Mind, Creativity, Discipline.
7. Further, with the help of a spreadsheet, I calculated the total number of manifested qualities in the areas. It turned out the following: Creativity 14, Health 24, Discipline 43, Responsibility 59, Diligence 61, Leadership 63, Intelligence 86, Sunshine 232.
Conclusions on this result.
- It was unexpected to see that I have the lead in 3rd place. Although the difference in the value in the directions is not too significant and can be attributed to the observational error, since I did not set any clear criteria for how to correctly record the results.
- In my life, there are not many reasons to be creative and this needs to be done specifically.
- When I entered the progress in the notebook, it seemed to me that “discipline” occurs very often, but in the “general standings” it turned out that I show discipline not so often. This indicator is true and this is one of the priority areas for the next 3 months.
- The leader in the manifestations of the «Sun». The reason may be that this is a too collective category, reflecting for me the state of being pleasant in communication. However, it is undoubtedly true that the manifestation of these qualities is easy for me and this category is wide and diverse. Until I broke down the virtues into categories, it seemed to me that I was only celebrating conscientiousness and discipline, but it turned out that I mostly communicate.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS FOR THE EXERCISE
- I showed and noted more than 500 virtues in a month, it’s cool. ON THE OTHER SIDE, THE RESULT OF WHICH I RECEIVED, I CANNOT CONSIDER ENOUGH INFORMATIVE, due to the lack of a clear algorithm for keeping records (which events to mark, which not, there were no clear signs of classification and clear definitions) — I acted on the principle that I remember most of all and it seems to me right — it is very subjective for an objective assessment.
- I think it made sense to put a lower ORP (for example, not 500, but 250 merit), since I spent too much time.
- The general conclusion at the moment about my characteristics. Me: diligent, responsible, hardworking, sunny — this suits the goals well — diligently study at UPP and in the near future it suits me to be like that.
- To achieve long-term plans, I plan to become more: creative, fun, attentive, loving and a leader.
- The fact that I spent so much time on this work, most likely, characterizes me as a person focused on myself, therefore, in order to become a good psychologist, there is a need to consciously shift attention to others.
- In general, based on the results, I believe that the biggest growth areas (for my 10 year goals) are in the areas of «Leadership», «Discipline» and «Creativity».
I already have new results. I’m currently working on the goal of the year to «help my husband become healthier, more alert, etc.», so in the mornings (after fixing my husband in bed with a massage :)), I tell him about my studies. During the exercise «Diary of Success» I found that I manifest such qualities as strong-willed, ascetic, persistent. Since these epithets were not present in my vocabulary before, they made a strong impression on me, a vivid visual image of a beautiful Spartan girl arose (Efremov, “Tais of Athens”), and this image perfectly matches my personal goals for the year for health. Shared with my husband. She said this: “Before, it was difficult for me to get up in the morning, but when I presented a new value image of myself, describing it with the words Ascetic, Persistent, Strong-willed, the desire and determination to jump out of bed briskly increased significantly.” These words had a magical effect on my husband, he jumped right out of bed and left the house at 6:35 to make it to the fitness center in the morning!
This is how fresh epithets work. Here I recalled Mayakovsky’s poem «Words with us, up to the most important thing, become a habit, decay like dresses …». If you keep saying the same thing to yourself, it stops stimulating you. It is necessary to regularly update the value image of oneself and look for new inspiring epithets. Apparently, when the epithet is fresh, it has a much stronger effect on the imagination, contributes to more powerful associations. This is another plus that I drew from this exercise, because by remembering and feeling the widest range of different virtues, I thus brought them into my life.