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Self-discipline
In thinking about her New Year's resolution, Sarah started from one of the principles of her religion, working toward, in a sense, the development of virtue in her life. I suppose it was with this in mind that I began ruminating about virtues, and it seems to me that perhaps the virtue of virtues is... self-discipline.
This is the ability of the rational mind to assert itself over instinct, the supremacy of long-term, big-picture thinking. Without it, what other virtue can be secure? How can we live up to any other ideals if we can't subordinate the feelings of the present moment?
When I was in college, as an exercise in self control, a friend of mine and I undertook to have one day of fasting each week, and I've never regretted the practice. If we can have control over the most basic functions and instincts, what can we not do? In the modern world, where calories are so easy to come by, it's good discipline to be able to say no to the excess once in a while, but such self-control would be equally valuable in a world of scarcity such as our ancestors inhabited, being able to ration out scarce resources.
Likewise, this is true in terms of economics: in contemporary society it has been all-too-easy to live beyond our means--to have whatever we desire and, in the process mortgage away our future for present whims. Although it's not an instance of self-discipline, the basic lesson was recalled to me today when I went to cash in 30-year-old savings bonds. When I was young, my grandmother would give my parents more or less $100 for my Christmas present, and for the first 10 years of my life that money was regularly put into savings bonds. Now, 30 years later, I'm quite glad that my parents didn't buy me some crappy plastic toy or whatever, but instead delayed my gratification with the gift. In our own lives, it's the decision that, in fact, we don't need the electric cat polisher this month (or any other month), but can instead put the money aside. It's the ability to live within our means even when the dominant paradigm in our culture says we don't have to.
The flip side of that is that, as the economy contracts, individuals need to have the discipline to contract with it. People often seem to be like goldfish--as income goes up, expenses go up proportionately. In the process, mere wants become, psychologically, needs, and not only does this prevent the person from getting ahead and stocking up, but if calamity strikes it can be very difficult to adjust to a "lower standard of living."
The value of self-discipline is true in our daily lives as well. Any number of times each day, our human disposition toward laziness impells us to take it easy even when our values or goals or well-being would be better served by another course of action--going to the gym or doing our daily chores or going out of our way to accomplish this or that thing.
We can, of course, push ourselves too far in the direction of asceticism, denying present pleasures for future gain to an absurd extent that ensures that we never enjoy life but always put off our rewards to some nebulous future date that, if we're not careful, will never come. In all things, even such a virtue as self-discipline, there must be a happy medium.
Still, it's something that, while I have more self-discipline than some, I know I could stand to develop more self-discipline in my own life.