Resolved.

Many people consider New Year’s resolutions to be a waste of time. Commonplace are the declarations that chocolate will be resisted, mothers will be called more frequently, and pants will fit once again, even if snugly. Just as commonplace are the quick admissions that this year’s resolutions are already in the history books.

And speaking of history books, I’m reading one right now that is putting the idea of “resolutions” into a very favorable light. Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life, by Orrin Woodward, looks at three of America’s greatest early leaders—George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Jonathan Edwards—who made a lifetime discipline of holding themselves accountable to carefully chosen character resolutions.

George Washington—from adolescence, the country-boy Washington laboriously copied and recopied one hundred and ten ‘rules of civility’ that were developed by the Jesuits. Richard Brookhiser, in Founding Father, said that Washington’s “attention to courtesy and correct behavior anticipated his political philosophy.” For the whole of his life, he wrote his rules, and in due course his rules wrote him. One example: “With me it has always been a maxim rather to let my designs appear from my works rather than by my expressions.”Benjamin Franklin—in his young-adulthood, Franklin was devastated to learn that he was detested by nearly everybody for his arrogance and selfishness. He responded to this discovery by resolving to change his character, which he did by establishing 13 virtues that he studied—one per week on a 13-week rotation—for the rest of his life. One example:  “Justice—wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.”Jonathan Edwards—also starting as a young man, Edwards began crafting what he called his “Resolutions,” a list that ended up totaling 70. He committed to read his 70 resolutions every week; in his lifetime, Edwards read his resolutions over 1,800 times. One example: “Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.”

The fact that these three early Americans measured their lives against a set of character resolutions reveals their point of view about our humanity.

1. They did not expect to get it right. Washington, Franklin, and Edwards knew they would fail to meet their “resolved” character goals. Indeed, they expected to fail repeatedly, daily, hourly, and as long as they lived on earth.
2. They knew that human beings require standards. Their purpose was to grow, to repeatedly and continuously measure themselves against a standard that would cause them to stretch.
3. They believed that their impact in the world would spring from their character; that their character would spring from their investments in character, and that character investment is a life-long pursuit.

Do you have a set of character “resolutions” that you intentionally remind yourself of on a regular basis?  Amidst all your “goals” and “resolutions” for the new year—personally or in business—are any of them about your character?

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