Success is in the blood. There
are men whom fate can never keep down they march forward in a jaunty
manner, and take by divine right the best of everything that the earth
affords. But their success is not attained by means of the Samuel
Smiles-Connecticut policy. They do not lie in wait, nor scheme, nor
fawn, nor seek to adapt their sails to catch the breeze of popular
favor. Still, they are ever alert and alive to any good that may come
their way, and when it comes they simply appropriate it, and tarrying
not, move steadily on.
Good health! Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry
the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in
the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every
hand-clasp.
Do not fear being misunderstood; and never waste a moment thinking
about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your own mind what you would
like to do, and then without violence of direction you will move
straight to the goal.
Fear is the rock on which we split, and hate the shoal on which many a
barque is stranded. When we become fearful, the judgment is as
unreliable as the compass of a ship whose hold is full of iron ore; when
we hate, we have unshipped the rudder; and if ever we stop to meditate
on what the gossips say, we have allowed a hawser to foul the screw.
Keep your mind on the great and splendid thing you would like to do;
and then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself
unconsciously seizing the opportunities that are required for the
fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the
running tide the elements that it needs. Picture in your mind the able,
earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought that you hold
is hourly transforming you into that particular individual you so
admire.
Thought is supreme, and to think is often better than to do.
Preserve a right mental attitude the attitude of courage, frankness and good cheer.
Darwin and Spencer have told us that this is the method of Creation.
Each animal has evolved the parts it needed and desired. The horse is
fleet because he wishes to be; the bird flies because it desires to; the
duck has a web foot because it wants to swim. All things come through
desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on
which our hearts are fixed.
Many people know this, but they do not know it thoroughly enough so
that it shapes their lives. We want friends, so we scheme and chase
‘cross lots after strong people, and lie in wait for good folks or
alleged good folks hoping to be able to attach ourselves to them. The
only way to secure friends is to be one. And before you are fit for
friendship you must be able to do without it. That is to say, you must
have sufficient self-reliance to take care of yourself, and then out of
the surplus of your energy you can do for others.
The individual who craves friendship, and yet desires a self-centered spirit more, will never lack for friends.
If you would have friends, cultivate solitude instead of society.
Drink in the ozone; bathe in the sunshine; and out in the silent night,
under the stars, say to yourself again and yet again, “I am a part of
all my eyes behold!” And the feeling then will come to you that you are
no mere interloper between earth and heaven; but you are a necessary
part of the whole. No harm can come to you that does not come to all,
and if you shall go down it can only be amid a wreck of worlds.
Like old Job, that which we fear will surely come upon us. By a wrong
mental attitude we have set in motion a train of events that ends in
disaster. People who die in middle life from disease, almost without
exception, are those who have been preparing for death. The acute tragic
condition is simply the result of a chronic state of mind a culmination
of a series of events.
Character is the result of two things, mental attitude, and the way
we spend our time. It is what we think and what we do that make us what
we are.
By laying hold on the forces of the universe, you are strong with
them. And when you realize this, all else is easy, for in your arteries
will course red corpuscles, and in your heart the determined resolution
is born to do and to be. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head
high. We are gods in the chrysalis.
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