Industriousness

A Skald’s Life – Business Virtues – Weekly Routine

/ Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Woden’s (Odin) Day

Morning and Daily Routines established, I want to turn to the subject of Weekly Routine.  There are some things that do not come up every day but they need to be disciplined and focused like everything else.  These things need to happen in order to achieve my goals.

Weekly Routine:

  1. Weightlifting – 4 days per week.  I actually have a five-day split but one day gets a break each week and then it gets rotated back in.  I love lifting but I can’t do it every day because I love the results more and that requires rest days.
  2. Cleaning – There are some cleaning actions I do try to do every day as habit.  Making the bed for instance and wiping down counters in the kitchen. The thing is I also try to do the full apartment at least every third day but the target is actually every other day.
  3. Walking – Right now I am using the walk from my car to class which is rather lengthy and happens four days a week for this.  That said, once school ends I will need a more disciplined approach.

If you haven’t noticed the list of these Routines get shorter.  This is probably a good thing and a little by design.  Like I said the best place for things to be is in the morning routine if possible.  In the Daily Routine next and then Weekly.  That said things like this just really can’t be pushed into Daily or Morning stuff.

This leaves the lifestyle stuff that happens every day or week but really isn’t a routine or requires an overall strategy to implement.  Weightlifting on this list is one of them.  The other two are Diet and Budget.  Before that there is one more list to make – my Bucket List.

Self-Reliance:

“Self Reliance is the spirit of independence, which is achieved not only for the individual, but also for the family, clan, tribe and nation.”

Principle: Work to be self-reliant in all things.

I think presently my wife and I are fairly self-reliant as long as we keep our budget tight.  The issue is staying that way and that is more of a long-term thing which requires us to thinking growing prosperity rather than just stable prosperity.  Prices increase and the cost of living will always be getting greater, this requires growing income and that is not just to live a better lifestyle but also to maintain self-reliance.  Stagnation doesn’t just kill prosperity; it kills self-reliance in the end.

Industriousness:

“Industriousness is the willingness to work hard, always striving for efficiency, as a joyous activity in itself”

Principle: Work with enjoyment of work itself.

The interest of being more efficient is always in front of me.  Being able to do the same work or more work with less cost and in less time is always something I think about.  The issue is to squeeze what I make into more and more.  I enjoy work when I am there.   It is a great time for the most part because I get to be doing something where I am making money and doing work.  At the same time I know I need to either do more or something else if I am going to reach my goals.

Hospitality:

“Hospitality is the willingness to share what one has with one’s fellows, especially when they are far from home.”

Principle: Be ready to be hospitable to those who truly need it.

I still can do more than a Coke and a Smile these days.  If you really need it I can do that and a meal and perhaps still give you advice.  That last part is not guaranteed to work but it’s free so you get what you pay for. I am also still toying with the idea of making my living room small group friendly for some sort of support group.

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

A Skald’s Life – Business Virtues – Current Known Goals

/ Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

Happy Woden’s Day (Woden is another name for Odin)

So, with my decision to let meditation on the Nine Noble Virtues (NNV) be a true guiding force to my goals and letting go of my notion of roles, what goals do I currently have?

  1. Strengthen Marriage – Given recent events my wife and I are spending time and even a little money to work on our marriage.
  2. Finish my Political Science Degree – I have one semester left and an Internship.  By the end of December I should have graduated with only my internship left.  My degree will be a BS in Political Science with minors in Economics and International Business.
  3. Advance Career – Once I have the degree I need to start a new career.  I am keeping my options open at this point.  It may even involve continuing education.
  4. Monitor and Control Finances – My wife and I being on our own means we now do this together.
  5. Write for my Blog  – 1 post per day average.
  6. Exercise – Weightlifting four times a week plus morning stretching every day.
  7. Follow a Solid Diet Plan – Paleo with intermittent fasting needs to be more and more a part of my life.
  8. Create and work a Bucket List.

My first step to achieving all that is to put things into morning, daily and weekly routines. So what I need is a list of things for the Morning routine, the Daily routine and the Weekly routine.  I need then to start going through these routines.

Part of this is going to be setting up plans too:  Having a budget me and my wife work out together, my weightlifting plan and my diet plan.  In addition, I need that bucket list.

Once school is over, I will be making some decision about continuing my education.  I also want to get back to walking after school.  Right now I am using the rather long walk from where I park to class four days a week for that.  After school is over, I will need a new plan.

Self-Reliance:

“Self Reliance is the spirit of independence, which is achieved not only for the individual, but also for the family, clan, tribe and nation.”

Principle: Work to be self-reliant in all things.

My wife and I have actually achieved some measure of self-reliance at this point.  Food, clothing and shelter plus insurance and two vehicles. It basically allows the both of us to function in this society and we really don’t need any help.  We still get a little, but I am slowly trying to wean us both off of it.

There may be other things as time goes by that require provision.  Our goal is that we first look to ourselves to provide them or perhaps if we can’t, we don’t need them.  There is still a minimalist in me that is rather strong.

Industriousness:

“Industriousness is the willingness to work hard, always striving for efficiency, as a joyous activity in itself”

Principle: Work with enjoyment of work itself.

What we are doing now as a couple is trying to be more efficient. That is getting more bang for the buck.  Basically we are budgeting and looking at how to make more money wherever we can.  It really is now about finding work we enjoy and is more lucrative.

In any case even though I am not working where I would ultimately like to be, I still am trying to enjoy work for its own sake. It makes what I am doing go smoother and without that dread most people have when they go to a job.

Hospitality:

“Hospitality is the willingness to share what one has with one’s fellows, especially when they are far from home.”

Principle: Be ready to be hospitable to those who truly need it.

I actually thought about picking up a hitch hiker the other day.  My heart goes out to wanderers in this world, so it was a draw to me.  But from a hospitality point of view, we can offer much more than a couple of months ago.

I want to still design my living room in this small apartment to handle a small group.  I am introverted but I don’t mind the occasional social gathering I can control.  It might be more cost-effective to serve something basic and tell everyone to bring their own booze.  We will see.

I remain –

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!

A Skald’s Life – Business Virtues – The Outward Virtues

/ Ed Raby Sr / Leave a comment

NNV 002

The virtues of Self-Reliance, Industriousness and Hospitality tend to be more outward than inward in their focus.  That is not to say they don’t have an inward quality.  They are however virtues that focus on the business of living life and how in that business of living life we interact with others.  What ideals are were pursuing in our relationships with others and how we do the business of life with them.

The three virtues together create an attitude of hard work, independence but at the same time voluntary cooperation.  There is no coercion in the Business Virtues but a freedom to act as one sees fit to work, build a life for one self and help others if one wishes.  I have found this point to resonate with my libertarian philosophy much better than most other things.  It combines well with the idea of being free, independent and charitable by choice not by force.

Self-Reliance:

“Self Reliance is the spirit of independence, which is achieved not only for the individual, but also for the family, clan, tribe and nation.”

From the standpoint of others, self-reliance means you are not drawing off others or leaching off others to meet your basic needs and wants.  You are taking care of these things yourself and are reliant on only yourself to meet your own needs.  This means you are not a burden to others.  You are meeting your needs.

My goal has been pretty simple here.  To be meeting my own needs for food clothing and shelter.  My wife and I have achieved that but it needs to be maintained and kept going.  The goal is independence (financial and otherwise) both now and in the future.  The next phase is a better job to do that.  The practical steps being to finish my degree and market it or once school is finished find another source of income in addition to my current job.

Industriousness:

“Industriousness is the willingness to work hard, always striving for efficiency, as a joyous activity in itself”

I don’t have a problem working hard.  I also believe in working hard at working smart.  Being a cleaver worker is as important as being a hard worker.  Striving for efficiency as someone who has studied economics is also something I enjoy.  Work as a joyous activity in and of itself takes a little more effort on my part, but I have recently discovered that attitude makes the day go even quicker than just staying busy.  From an outward standpoint, being an industrious person commands respect in the real world.  Laziness is never respected, nor does it lead one to prosperity.

My goal here is to work hard and with enjoyment; specifically in finishing my degree and working my current job.  This kind of hearkens back to the Foundational virtues as far as the nature of the goal, but industriousness is kind of like that.  Finding and enjoying work is the key to prosperity.

Hospitality:

“Hospitality is the willingness to share what one has with one’s fellows, especially when they are far from home.”

Being willing to share.  Not forced but willing.  This is actually a common virtue in many religions but as a Christian I must say I neglected it quite a bit.  Things have changed a bit since I last wrote on this.  Back then I could offer a Coke, a smile and a conversation.  Advice if asked for.  The issue is willingness to share in prosperity and I would say I have achieved a measure of that.  I can now offer to the truly desperate a shared meal if you wish, but make sure you are in need and after twenty years of dealing with freeloaders, I know the difference.

My goal here is to simply stand ready to help if I can and show hospitality if I can.  Nothing more or less.

Summary:

All said this is pretty simply to say.  Work hard to be self-sufficient, and enjoy what you do, work for greater prosperity and be ready to share willfully to those that need it.  All of this is voluntary as to force people to do any of this would violate all of these virtues.  You expect them not just in yourself but in others as well.

Goal List:

  1. Be positive about my future
  2. Act with courage at the right time
  3. Pursue knowledge, wisdom and truth at all times
  4. Work to be self-reliant by finishing school and building my career
  5. Work with enjoyment of work itself both in school and my job.
  6. Be ready to be hospitable to those who truly need it.

Until the Self Virtues,

The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.

Skaal!!!