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Show TALK. It's about the easiest thing in the. world to talk about what you are going to do tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or at some indeterminate future time. But talk doesn't count for much. It isn't the things you intend to do, but the things you actually accomplish that produce results in this world. Wishes and "would-like-tos" go a long way to fill in an aimless existence, but if they do not stir the mental and physical self to action, the days and years go by and bring the realization of hope no nearer. The world is full of people who look into the future with a calm dependence on providence provi-dence or some miraculous intercession of luck in their affairs to bring the realization of their dreams or their ambitions. Opportunity comes around and knocks at the door, and when the call is answered there is an "if" attachment to the welcome wel-come extended. "If" this or that were different oh. that we could all forget that little word "if" and get acquainted with a system of self help without with-out it! Years ago two' boys fought for the supremacy in the classroom. It was nip and tuck with them to the last day of school, and when their respective grades were averaged it was found that not a tenth of one per cent separated them. Honors were even and the honors at the commencement exercises were divided. But when the real battle of life began one boy started to do things. He went to work. The other started to dream of things ho was going to do soon. He is still dreaming. He; "intends" to do something worth while pretty scon, but he is making no preparations to further his aims. What kind of a life are you leading, gentle reader ? Arc, you trying to convince yourself that the day for doing is in the future, or are you accomplishing ac-complishing some real thing each day ? The world , is full of people who "intend" to do something, and they are the inefficient ones, the incompetent ones, the dre'amers, who, as the years go by and no mirac: ulous intercession of providence places them on the high pinnacle they have "intended" for so long to reach, grow into socialists, malcontents, and insist that the handicap is too great to overcome. Ambition Ambi-tion without work is like a boat without a propeller. pro-peller. It floats around aimlessly on the sea of life for a time, accumulating a few barnacles, until it encounters a storm, and then it is wrecked on a rocky shore or is swamped by the waves. If you have an ambition to be something, live up to your ambition. Awaken to the fact that what is worth while is only accomplished by work in that direction. You cannot jump into high places all at once. There is the ladder that must be climbed. And you cannot mount one round of that ladder by looking at it and talking about the time when you will be at the top. The first round is mounted only by work, and the rest of the ladder can be climbed only by concentration. If you stop to talk on the road up you may slip back, and if you grow weary of the work and decide to "intend" to climb higher some other time, be assured the top will gradually become farther and farther away. All the good intentions of a lifetime and all the idle talk of good work to be done next week or next year are not going to land you in any position worth reaching. Today is the time. Let the other fellow tell what he is going to do, but you get out and do it. That's what makes success; that's what the dreamers and big talkers haven't yet learned. |
