Early to rise, early to bed

8/31/09

Well, I did get to bed early, and rose on time, we’ll see if it makes me healthy, wealthy, and wise. I know “happy” didn’t necessarily enter into the picture. Actually, this phrase probably came from Ben’s Puritanical upbringing, and I don’t think that happiness was big in their belief system. While we are in his background, I’d like to explore his family of origin, (foo) as it is called in the field. One of the things that bothers me in the field of History is that they are doing a lot of psychological interpretations, but they are not trained particularly well in psychology. It is like one of those commercials where the guy is doing open heart surgery and a nurse asks him, after a dubious procedure, “Are you a doctor?’ To which he replies, “No, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night.” Many historians and current political pundits try to interpret people, but it is based on some simple analysis, that often just suits their fancy, but is not very in depth. Part of what I will be doing, is seeing history, and specifically Ben Franklin, through the eyes of an experienced psychotherapist. Much of my training was in something called, Family Systems Theory, which includes a Genogram, which is looking at family dynamics through the generations to get a better understanding of the current patient. When you don’t have the actual person, this is somewhat limiting, but one can still get a basic understanding. I believe, with Ben, because he wrote a very thorough and reknowned autobiography, one can get a very good idea about what influenced and shaped him during his growing up.

When I get a history of a client, my goal is to understand how they were shaped both generationally and within their own family of origin for the purpose of helping them heal from their pasts and enable them to choose new ways to go through life. What is the point of understanding Benjamin Franklin? I mean , he is already dead, so what is the point of understanding what made him tick. I think I know, but it is now the end of the day, and this early to rise thing can really make one have to go early to bed, so I will discuss it more tomorrow.

Can Benjamin Franklin Help me become a better Man?

I really needed to sleep better. That's why I started this project of personal growth from learning about Ben Franklin. I've had trouble sleeping through the night ever since I had a split shift job in the late 80's, which conditioned me to get up early in the morning, prematurely, and then I would "nurse" myself back to sleep, through eating and reading something mindless like the sports page, after which I would go back to sleep for about another hour. Not a tragic circumstance, but certainly annoying, and ultimately wasteful. So, as I have recently turned 45, and therefore am allowed some middle-aged ruminations, I was trying to think about how to be more productive with my life, and decided that if I could better utilize my early mornings, I could accomplish all those big things in life that were currently on hold. Sleeping 8 hours continuously, could produce 2 more hours a day, with which I could make a significant impact on life as I knew it. Anyway, my mind jumped, as is its want, to the quote by Ben Franklin, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise". That seemed to speak to my need. So, then I thought of the quote, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." From that I thought, 'what if I tried a year of learning and growing from history? Specifically from Ben Franklin? After all, here was a man who achieved a lot in his life. He must have something to teach me'. So, I am embarking on learning from Ben Franklin for the next year. He is a particularly apt example from history because he was the very embodiment of personal growth. I would argue he was the father of self-help in America, which is at the core of the American personality.



Accordingly, I will set a goal every week that more or less has something to do with Ben Franklin. For the year I will pick 5 goals in the following 10 areas:

1. Health
2. Financial
3. Socio-Political
4. Relational-Marital
5. Psychology- Effective living
6. Creativity
7. Spirituality
8. Intelectual/Technology
9. Home Improvement
10. Recreational

Starting this week with the quote that got me into this mess, "Early to bed, etc ", I will be doing a health goal, but I will also be hoping for it to be a financial and intelectual one as well, you know, let's see if it makes me ultimately wealthier and wiser as well. My goal will be to go to bed by 10 p.m. , much earlier than the usual 12 or so, and stay in bed until 6 a.m., and be out of bed no later than 6:30. With this new regime, I hope to ge at least one hour of writing in every morning. I will learn from Ben's life, ideas, and accomplishments, and will write about them daily according to a loose daily schedule throughout the week. Let the project begin.