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Address powerful goodness

Benjamin Franklin’s day looked like this:

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Franklin’s structuring of his day like this reminds me of the “daily scaffold” Curtis James talks about in relation to his People Who Do productivity work. 

Mine looks a lot messier and more fragmented, including the sleep.

I especially like the “address Powerful Goodness” part of the morning. Was that some sort of meditation? He was “moderate in his attitude to relgion“, apparently, so perhaps it wasn’t scripture, just a bit of thinking time.

I wonder if his daysreally were always like this? Or was this the ideal and usually he was distracted. I suspect this kind of order requires domestic servants and/or an absence of young children in the house. And no early morning train commutes.

Or maybe there’s a way to squeeze some contemplation in at the start of the day. I probably tend to fire up the RSS or podcasts a little too early.

Via John Naughton, via Brain Pickings.

Antony Mayfield
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3 responses to “Address powerful goodness”

  1. 21stCenturyPacioliFanGirl Avatar
    21stCenturyPacioliFanGirl

    I, too, was curious about Ben’s “Powerful Goodness” so I searched on the term. Here’s what Ben may have been referring to: “O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.”

    This stirs more curiosity because purportedly Ben eschewed religion, but this sounds like he is “addressing” a deity in prayer. Was he anti-religion but still deeply spiritual?

  2. 21stCenturyPacioliFanGirl Avatar
    21stCenturyPacioliFanGirl

    P.S. Quite obviously I am addressing your blogpost because it surfaced in my search on the term “powerful goodness,” just now.

  3. Chistopher Black Avatar
    Chistopher Black

    Folks,
    Franklin was deeply spiritual, never doubting a guiding hand…he was dissatisfied with secularism…his auto biography is accessible, and a wonderful and en lighting read, highly recommended.

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