Keeping Up With Prudence: A Week of Sporadically Sound Judgment

As promised, after a prolonged battle with myself and my laziness, I have finally mustered up the will power to update you on the first week of my experiment. For those of you who are just joining, I have recently decided to take on a personal challenge in hopes of walking away from it a more graceful and diplomatic woman. In my last post, The Virtue Vows, I touched base on how this past week was going to be focused on prudence, the first virtue in the article I presented. In other words, this past week was for me to practice reasonable and sound judgment. Here is what I realized:

1. You never realize just how judgmental you are until you make an effort not to be. When it comes down to it, we are always placing judgment on someone or something be it negatively or positively, and that is why reasonable and sound judgment based on a person's history is more important than a simple write off of someone's actions or appearances. That being said...
2. Everyone and everything is flawed, but there is nothing you can do about it. Rather than trying to wrap your head around things that cannot and should not be fixed (being that you have no business doing so), it is best to find and focus on a positive aspect that can deter you from the unnecessary negativity in your mind.

Work was where the challenge really set off, because I work in downtown where a lot of crazy people come in. Although I don't prefer it, dealing with such a wide range of people has really amplified my patience. I get a lot of angry, cracked out, smelly, crazy, and even creepy customers who come in demanding help and attention. Obviously, turning them down is not an option if I want to keep my job, and after a couple minutes of talking to them it always comes down to this: you may not like or understand why a person acts the way they do, but when it comes down to that person needing your help, you need to understand what you can offer them. Someone can spend years acting the way they do without realizing it, but amidst the blur of their habitual actions, one act of kindness from someone else might be all that it takes for them to look back on and hopefully turn their character around.

As for my second point, I've done a lot of whining since I've moved here. Actually, I've been a big ole' baby pretty much my entire life. I'm really good at finding things to complain about, and only recently have I been able to practice the art of gratitude. For instance, I don't like how Honolulu is so urban and grungy in comparison to the clean and quaint confines of the Orange County bubble. However, everything in Orange County closes at 9pm, and there's virtually nothing to do except for going out to bars. Here in Honolulu, there are so many things for me to do and explore, and for that I am grateful and will look back on whenever I start to feel disgruntled about the grunge again. 

As far as my personal promise to practice gratitude on a more regular basis, I would like to express how grateful I am for my job. I absolutely love everything about my job. I love that it challenges me, and that it allows me to constantly push myself to achieve higher goals. I have made some awesome friends at work, and for the first time ever, I actually look forward to coming in to work every day. I couldn't say the same for my past jobs as a receptionist at a hair salon, a tanning salon, and as a high school formal events planner. I know of many people who truly despise their job, and that's why I feel like I truly lucked out in having landed this amazing opportunity.

Anyway, this next week's highlighted virtue will be Justice, or responsibility. I will provide the excerpt here in case any of you wish to partake in this challenge as well. It's super simple really. I just read the excerpts and focus on practicing what the bullet points say. Focussing on one point a day has proven to be more effective in my opinion. So here it is:

Responsibility (Justice)

• Acknowledging and respecting the rights of others -- the basis for our duties and obligations.
• Habit of doing our duties, whether we feel like it or not. (Includes the notion of professionalism: ability to perform at our best no matter how we "feel.")
• Respect for rightful authority. (Authority means, among other things, the right to be obeyed.)
• Living with the consequences of our decisions and mistakes, including neglect.
• Refusal to see oneself as a victim.
• Habit of honoring our promises and commitments even when this involves sacrifice.
• Habit of minding our own business, staying out of matters that do not concern us.
• Refraining from gossip, detraction, and rash judgment; giving people benefit of doubt and respecting others right to presumption of innocence.

I already know that last one is going to prove as a huge challenge to me. Best of luck to those of you who will be practicing great responsibility this week! For updates on my endeavors, follow me on Twitter! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I just ordered Thanksgiving dinner for myself, my boyfriend, and his brother. This will be our first Thanksgiving away from home, and I am very grateful to have them around...although I could do without the unreliable oven. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner would have been fun, but burning it would not have been. Oh well, more time for me to read your blogs on that day I suppose. :)

What are you grateful for?