Day 243 – Virtues

“Watch your thoughts, for they will become actions. Watch your actions, for they’ll become… habits. Watch your habits for they will forge your character. Watch your character, for it will make your destiny.” ― Margaret Thatcher

Last week at work I had a pleasant surprise. I decided to take a free webinar titled “Character and Ethics”. I was told to take advantage of any sort of self-development so I figured this would be a good opportunity. The most interesting part for me was when the presenter, Dr. Kilner, discussed the necessity of developing virtues in all four domains. Moral: Treat others well, Civic: contribute to society, Intellectual: think well, and Performance: work well. According to him, one or some of the virtues is not enough and he gave interesting examples from lazy thinkers to dictators to prove his point. It demonstrates how one good deed doesn’t make you a good person, there’s more to it then that. It made me think about a lot of things but today I figured it would be interesting to discuss the idea of Minimalism and how it fits the four domains of virtue.

Is it Moral? Well yes, the whole way of living is centralized the idea of loving people and using things. Is it Civic? Well yes, donations to those who are less fortunate benefits them more than any of these decluttered items would benefit us. Is it Intellectual? Well yes, in understanding minimalism, you become closer to a more meaningful life, where there is less of a focus on items and more on time/life. And finally, does it pass the performance test? Well yes, it works very well. The work of getting rid of items in exchange for more experiences and time is well worth the effort. Less is more. less focus on stuff and more focus on the things that matter.

All in all, from our perspective, minimalism passes the four domains of virtues. It’s an interesting thing to think about with everything in your life. If a focus in your life doesn’t pass the virtues test, it may not be worth your time. Time is very valuable, make sure you use it wisely.

Item 243 of 360+

Today’s decluttered item is a shirt from Amalia. This item will be donated, fulfilling a moral virtue. We hope someone else will be able to enjoy this shirt.