| 1. Thoughtfully identify the
traits relevant to your personality which most need
improvement. Using various Torah books on ethical training,
carefully study the appropriate chapters dealing with them
until you are familiar with their subject matter. Thus, if you
identify the quality of "watchfulness" as being in
need of improvement, study "The Trait of
Watchfulness" found in Mesilat Yesharim, The Path of
the Just. (Sample lists have been provided on pages at the
end of this page)
2. Concentrate the essence of each chapter in
a single statement or short verse. For instance,
a suggested abstract for "watchfulness" might be:
"Carefully analyze your deeds."
3. Infuse the meaning of each verse into a keyword
For example, "Carefully analyze your deeds"
could generate "Reflect." This keyword will
be used for a full week, so that the cycle of all keywords is
completed four times a year - once every three months.
4. Afterwards, go back and review, and then
study intensively those same chapters in order to achieve a
clearer and more essential understanding of all the verses derived
above.
5. Read and reread the keywords and
their statements several times until you know them
backward and forward and they flow naturally from your mouth.
6. Focus on one of the keywords each
week, keeping the other twelve in the background. That is to
say, all week, no matter what you do, the keyword and
its statement should not budge from your mind. They
should be so deeply etched in your consciousness that you
imagine seeing them written before your eyes, hear them
whispered in your ears and feel them actually forming on your
lips.
7. During the week, search for opportunities
to improve the attribute. You should yearn intensely for those
opportunities. If none should arise, shrewdly manufacture
suitable situations. The more you are involved today, the
easier it will be to improve tomorrow, and the greater will be
the effect on your heart.
8. Every evening you will make an accounting
determining if you met resistance or failed to improve any of
the traits.
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