another than to knock him down.” The man or woman of Manners is the person of consideration and tact. And nothing but the inbred quality of Manner is genuine. For money or social standing or quick achievement cannot give it.
Be your Best Self always.
Now, Manners are a possession most enviable. Few are born without the possibility of them. A large number who have them hidden away somewhere use them not. To find them out and put them to use and to habit is an event much to be heralded. A better day than this to start could not be found. How about polishing them up at home? How about carrying them as you do your grip or morning paper to your office? How about investing them, as sure dividend bringers, in your office helpers and day associates — from the humblest to the greatest? You can do so if you decide as a settled thing to —
Be your Best Self always.
Relax
Achievement is the result of the proper co-ordination between Work and Rest. Were it not for its regular fraction-of-a-second Rest between each throb, the Heart would soon pump itself out.
Relaxation is Energy Stored Up.
Go into any Business Office. Hunt out the man whose work seems to be going on with Smoothness and with the least Friction. Study him carefully — for he is sure to be the Boss himself. Having no time for foolish dreams and useless details, yet such a man is never too busy to Listen and to Learn — and Relax. He makes every effort Count — by periodic Resting.
Relaxation is Energy Stored Up.
There is to Relaxation a quiet, cumulative power that is sure to hold you in good stead if ever Panic or Disorder come near. For it is at such times that every ounce of energy and resource is demanded.
Relaxation is Energy Stored Up.
Relax as you Work. Think as you Go. Reflect upon the Improvement of everything you Do. All things can wait upon a man building up and fortifying his own Soul and his own Character. Invest in Relaxation.
Self-Control
Self-Control is simply manly Courage fully fit — ready to act calmly in Emergency. It’s the Man at the helm in complete Power. Also, Self-Control is the Man Self-Happy because Self-Bossed.
You can Be what you Will, if you Will to Be.
For the intricate Forces of the Brain cluster about each other seeking a Leader. And the Man-power steps out and takes command. First of all, you are what you are. Rude hands never shaped you. Divinity formed you in the raw. Then Divinity must shape you into the Strong. Self-Control is the cornerstone of Divinity.
You can Be what you Will, if you Will to Be.
Rule your own Self and you immediately find yourself in the center of things, for you draw others your way. The great Shop with its thousands of wheels, belts, bolts and screws, all working in the smoothest unison, grips the admiration as its marvelous Power Plant, human-like in perfect Self-Control, produces its completed Machines. But greater are you in your Human Shop, while under absolute Self-Control, you turn out Deeds worthy and un-ending.
You can Be what you Will, if you Will to Be.
Self-Control must needs be made up of Patience, the ability to keep Still when you feel like Talking right out, and the iron holding down of your own Self for the sake of the Bigger Hours. No man ever won anything without first winning Himself. You are a strong Human bundle of Passion, Red Pepper — and Power. Your Mixing of these things in wise proportion and mastering them will mold you into a sure Success. Try, for —
You can Be what you Will, if you Will to Be.
Influence
Just as soon as you begin to Think or Do something, you begin to have Influence. Influence is something you can’t keep at home. And when it gets away from you, you can never call it back.
Your Influence makes you Something of Somebody else.
Influence has no boundaries. Once started, though it may seem ever so trifling, yet it may have as its destination the farthermost comers of the Earth. If you would get a conception of Power, realize the Influence of a Strong Man.
It is well to remember that what you have that you can’t help but give away is your Influence.
Bear in mind that your Influence is never wholly absorbed, nor does it disappear into Nothingness. It Counts again and again. Influence has no end.
The three greatest objects in life — Friends, Happiness, Success — are each dependent upon proper Influence. So it is good to know that even the humblest person is, after all, master of his own Influence. He can send it out to scatter Sunshine or Shadows. It’s his Choice.
A man’s greatest Responsibility in this world lies in the way he acquires and gives out — his Influence.
Your Influence to-day is sure to have a tremendous bearing upon the total work of the world. Your Influence upon other people and the Influence of other people upon you is sure to become a Force and a Factor in the complete work of your day and theirs.
See that your Influence is kept true and wholesome and it will return to refresh you, again and again.
Face It
Some people fancy that to Dodge some work that they ought to do is about the easiest possible thing to do. The truth is, however, it is always easier to walk right up to your work and — Pace It.
No one but laggards dig up excuses for Dodging what they should Face.
It is unfortunate that the most costly lessons are many times learned late in life. The greatest reason for this is our timidity and cowardice in Facing every problem just as soon as it Faces us. Many a man has evaded a problem in his youth that he could easily have Solved at that time and then gone on, but which he refused to grapple with until compelled to Face It late in life under cover of the bitterest pangs of sorrow and remorse.
It takes greater courage to Decide to do a thing than it does to Do the thing.
Have you a particularly difficult piece of Work to do to-day? Face It. Have you an Enemy? Face him — and make him your Friend. You feel yourself capable of more important work than you are now doing? Face the new Work, and decide to Master it. Whatever your Problem, Face It — with Courage and without Fear, and with the Calmness that comes to a man when he decides to go ahead according to his Conscience.
Sidestep — Dodge, from nothing. If a thing is worth working out, Face It and Finish it.
Poise
Poise is a large phase of Success already worked out. Pot there can be little of Success without Poise. Poise is keeping your head when everybody else loses theirs.
Poise is Power — square jawed and firm set.
When Blame all seems to come your way; when the fingers of Fault-finders all seem centered
