Part 3 of Ben Franklin’s 13 Highly effective Habits (updates on Sunday).

3. CLEANLINESS— Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation.

Today’s lesson of Ben Franklin’s 13 habits is cleanliness. This is an ongoing struggle. It was not always this way. It used to be that taking a shower, washing your clothes and picking up after yourself was a no-brainer. I was a pretty compulsive as a child to manage these things. Since becoming an entrepreneur, it seems these things have slipped away into a realm of unfavorable discord.

NO UNCLEANLINESS IN BODY

This can be a broad category, but I’ll try to refrain from going to spiritual since the body is composed of spirit and mind. Remember where Jesus says it is not what one puts in the mouth that makes him unclean (referring to eating food regarded in the Jewish culture as unclean), but what comes out of his mouth that makes him unclean (referring to the words we speak that come from our heart). So it is difficult to separate the body from the others, but I think Ben Franklin in this instance, given the context is solely referring to the cleanliness of washing your body.

No one wants to be around you if you smell. It is hard to get a job if you smell. “What Color Is Your Parachute.” —  by Richard Nelson Bolles is a book for job-seekers. There is a chapter in that book that dedicates itself to just preparing for the interview. Combing your hair, clipping your nails, everything must be perfect in the interview from the clothes you wear, to your eyebrows, nose hairs, no smudges on your glasses. everything must be perfect. (We won’t talk about the attitude and enthusiasm that you need to get that job in this post.)

You never get a chance to make a first impression. So whether you are looking for a job at Oni Press or DC Comics or your favorite comic book shop, make sure you look your best. The Bible tells us this is so. Man looks at the outward appearance and God looks at the heart. You want to please God, have a clean heart. You want to please man–better have a clean outward appearance.

NO UNCLEANLINESS IN CLOTHES

It is amazing to me how far a pair of jeans will go in our house without being washed. When do the laundry in our house with 4 daughter’s you can imagine the pile of clothes we sort through and put away every week. One of daughter’s, for the longest time only wore one pair of jeans and one shirt all summer long. We would do the laundry and all the clothes of the other girls would be a foot high, but this daughter would have 1 pair of jeans and 1 shirt. They were her favorite. So she wore them all the time.

At the time, she was staying inside mainly, so they looked clean and they didn’t smell too bad. I typically wear clothes once a day and then wash them. I wonder why do that? If it looks clean and smells clean, why don’t wear them again? I’m sure it has to do with all the microscopic germs that float around us everyday and attach to things.

It sure is a lot of work though to wash “clean” clothes. It would help us all, if instead of developing self recharging cel phones,  if they invented re-fresh smelling clothes, to limit the amount of laundry down to half size or a third and only have to wash clothes out of dire necessity…until then we do laundry once a week.

NO UNCLEANLINESS IN HABITATION

I focus my energies now instead of what I deem most appropriate and sadly these areas tend to fall by the wasteside. It is good to have a housekeeper or sorts to do these things for you. A friend of mine tells the vacuum cleaner story… He was living at home with his mom, while he was trying to make money online. He was trying everything to figure out how to do it.

His mom wanted him to vacuum the floor. And he said he wasn’t going to do it. He had a made very little money online and at that time he felt he needed to work on the “more important” matters of running his business than that of cleaning the carpet. He took all the money he had made online and hired a maid, so he wouldn’t have to hear his mom be upset at him for not vacuuming the floor.

Some may think this is extreme, but he is a millionaire now. I happen to like vacuuming the floor it relaxes me, it is fun to do and it doesn’t take much time. But I am not a millionaire, so maybe I should learn something from him.

I’ll close with a good greeting for today. Whatever you do today to be clean in Body, Clothes, or in Habitation. Know that you are doing it to help you 1. achieve a better today. 2. prepare for a better tomorrow. and 3. become better prepared to influence people. Being clean helps you lead yourself and others.

I have a special project I’m working on that will help you share your ideas of cleanliness to help influence more people so we can all be clean…stay tuned.