I’m 42 and life isn’t what I want it to be. This blog is an attempt to improve that.

I’m 42 years old and my life isn’t where I want it to be.

I’ve chased dreams and climbed ladders. I’ve set and achieved goals, gone from plan A to Z and just kept going! Some things work out and yet…

I’ve been hired at jobs I loved. Let go from jobs and made come backs. I’ve built a solid financial footing and yet…

I’ve run marathons and spartan races. I workout and exercise and yet…

I talk with friends, and when we are honest, we admit that life is good. And yet…

My life is still not what I want it to be.

Do you ever feel that way?

When I need answers, I read. In my study two quotes have stood out to me.

“Watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” Lao Tzu

And

“Character is destiny.” Heraclitus

Seems as though if my life isn’t where I want it to be, it is a combination of my habits (what I do) and my character (who I am). You might already know what.

I knew that already too…sort of. I have read Atomic Habits, Tiny Habits, and The Power of Habit. I know that habits matter.

But so much of my time was spent trying to build habits to help me do better not necessarily be better.

You can do and do and do, but if you don’t become, it leaves you feeling with the same “and yet” that I’ve been feeling for over a decade now.

Then I was reminded of the greatest character development story in history: Benjamin Franklin. He identified 13 character traits that he wanted to develop. In the development of these traits, he focused on one trait a week striving for perfection in each of the 13 categories.

Near the end of his life his assessment was, “On the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell short of it. Yet as I was, by the Endeavor, a better and a happier Man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.” (Benjamin Franklin)

A “better and happier man.” That is what I want!

Better and happier. Not to have done more, but to have become better and in so doing become happier.

So, I set out on my own adventure. Armed with 9 virtues: belief, integrity, knowledge, self-control, patience, charity, reverence, humility, and diligence.

I am setting out a quest of personal improvement. But how?

Well, if “you become your habits” (James Clear) then I need to implement habits to help me develop the character traits I want.

What are the habits of patience? What habits will help me be more diligent or exercise greater self-control?

I don’t know.

We’ll find out together.

That’s what this blog is for. Discovering the habits that will help us be better and happier people. The true adventure of a lifetime.