Article Surfing Archive

The secrets to getting ahead in life and being successful are so simple that we often overlook them. Replacing a few bad habits with a few good ones can make a big difference. Try the following tips.

CHOOSE GOOD COMPANIONS

Two are better than one, and you will find it both protection and incentive if you can secure a faithful friend; and in some respects better than two are the many; therefore you cannot do more wisely than seek out a wider companionship. Whilst instructed by the information of some, and strengthened by the firmer faith or larger experience of others, there are important themes on which you will learn to think with precision.

STOP PROCRASTINATING

Mrs. Whitney says, in one of her books, that "the things which are crowded out of a life are the test of that life," and I believe that the saying is true in its widest sense. Examine our lives closely, and we shall find that we constantly delude ourselves with the idea that we would accomplish certain things if we had time, when, in truth, we have no real desire for those things. One person will say that reading is out of the question; another will bewail the impossibility of maintaining social relations; a third will avow that charitable or benevolent enterprises would delight her if she might engage in them and all the time these good people are comforting themselves with a fallacy. The things for which they do find time are the things they prefer.

The things which are crowded out are the things they would not choose if life lay unemployed before them. Scores of wives and mothers are busied constantly with their family cares, but not one in every score loves music enough to steal time for practice. Hundreds of young men are forced by stress of circumstances to work hard for daily subsistence, but only one in a thousand, perhaps, conquers the difficulty of his position, and makes a name for himself. This one might not have found his way easier or its upward steps less tiresome, but he wanted to succeed, and so wanting, let nothing needful be crowded out.

KEEP YOUR TEMPER

You will accomplish nothing by losing it. Many date their failure in business to some hasty and ill-considered statement made during a fit of temper. When things go awry, business is dull, and the prospect is dark ahead, it is very poor consolation to indulge in passionate and angry remarks to those around you. The frown on a person's face is a good indication of the state of the feelings within. The world judges us by our outward conduct and behavior, and ill-natured, cross grained men rarely become successful.

Solomon says: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city;" "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him." Difficulties disappear when met calmly and resolutely; they increase with ill-nature and anger. Keep your temper.