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 has to offer. 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 your head high, and fill the lungs; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every hand-clasp.
Don’t fear being misunderstood and never waste a moment thinking about your enemies. Try to fix in your own mind what you would like to do, and then without changing direction you will move straight to the goal.
Fear is the rock on which we break, and hate the sand bar on which many a ship is stranded. When we become fearful the judgment is as unreliable as the compass of a ship full of iron ore; when we hate, we have broken the rudder; and if ever we stop to think about what the gossips say we have allowed a rope to break the propeller.
Keep your mind on the great things you would like to do and then as the days go 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 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 individual you so admire.
Thought is supreme, and to think is often better than to do. Preserve the right mental attitude, the attitude of courage, frankness and good cheer.
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 tresspasser 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.
Like old Job, that which we fear will surely come to us. By a wrong mental attitude we have set in motion a train of events that end 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.
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.
