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Show GETTING AROUSED. Many people seem to think that ambition ambi-tion is a quality born with us; that It Is not susceptible to improvement; that It Is something thrust upon us which will take care of Itself. Bui it Is a passion that responds very quickly to cultivation, and It requires constant care and education, educa-tion, Just as- the faculty for music or -art does, or It will atrophy. If we do not try to realise our ambition, ambi-tion, it will not keep sharp and defined. Our faculties become dull and soon lose their power if they are not exercised. How can we expect our ambition to remain re-main fresh and vigorous through years of inactivity. Indolence or indifference? It we keep letting opportunities slip by us without making any attempt to grasp them.- our inclination will grow duller and weaker. "What I most need," as Emerson says, "Is somebody to make me do what 1 can." To do what I can, that is my problem; not what a Napoleon or a Lincoln Lin-coln could do, but-what I can do. It makes all the difference In the world to me whether I bring out the best thing in me, or the worst whether I utilise ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or ninety per cent of my ability. Everywhere we see people who have reached middle life or later without being aroused. They have developd only a small percentage or their success possibilities. They are still In a dreamy state. The best thing In them lies so deep that it has never been awakened. when we meet these people we feel conscious that they have a great deal of latent power that has never been exercised. Great possibilities pos-sibilities of usefulness and of achievement are, all unconsciously, going to waste Within them. If you interview the great army of failures, fail-ures, you will find that multitudes have failed because they never got into a stimulating, stim-ulating, encouraging environment, be. cause their ambition was never aroused, or because they were not strong enough to rally under depressing, discouraging or vicious surroundings. Most of the people peo-ple we find in prisons and poorhouses are pitiable examples of the Influence of an environment which appealed to the worst Instead of to the best In them. Orison Swett Marden in Success. |