Secrets of the successful

Possibilities in Spare Moments

  "One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits and profitably employed would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science.

One hour a day would in ten years make an ignorant man a well-informed man.

It would earn enough to pay for two daily and two weekly papers, or eighteen large volumes a year. An hour a day might make all the difference between bare existence and useful, happy living. An hour a day might make – nay, has made – an unknown man a famous one, a useless man a benefactor to his race. Consider, then, the mighty possibilities of two – four – yes, six hours a day that are, on the average, thrown away by young men and women in the restless desire for fun and diversion.

   On the floor of the gold-working room, in the United States Mint at Philadelphia, there is a wooden lattice-work which is taken up when the floor is swept, and the fine particles of gold-dust, thousands of dollars’ yearly are thus saved. So every successful man has a kind of network to catch “the raspings and parings of existence, those leavings of days and wee bits of hours” which most people sweep into the waste of life. He who hoards and turns to account all odd minutes, half hours, unexpected holidays, gaps “between time,” and chasms of waiting for unpunctual persons, achieves results which astonish those who have not mastered this most valuable secret.”

Orison Swett Marden, painting by Seymour J. Guy, Utilizing a Spare Moment. 

  I ran across this picture in a Berkeley Ca. gallery. (click on it for best viewing) Something about it I just love. The photographer is Emerson Matabele and this woman titled, "The Conjure Woman", from Naudada Nepal had the following caption under it.

   Often beauty is not perceived because it exists in the wilderness or because the right eye never comes. 
Adalbert Stifter. 

Opportunities

  “There may not be one chance in a million that you will ever receive unusual aid; but opportunities are often presented which you can improve to good advantage, if you will only act. 

  The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them. Every lesson is full of them. Every lesson in school or college is an opportunity. Every examination is a chance in life. Every patient is an opportunity. Every newspaper article is an opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity, -- an opportunity to be polite, -- an opportunity to be manly – an opportunity to be honest, -- an opportunity to make friends. Every proof of confidence in you is a great opportunity. Every responsibility thrust upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to succeed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them. If a slave like Fred Douglass, who did not even own his body, can elevate himself into an orator, editor, statesman, what ought the poorest white boy to do, who is rich in opportunities compared with Douglas?” Orison Swett Marden. 

  

The following few posts come from a book by Orison Swett Marden titled, "The Secret of Achievement." I posted a few pieces from it regarding rearing children that I like. Working with men in recovery, I find few that were truly invested in by their parents. There are exceptions, but they are few. Most are diamonds in the rough and ooze with potential but have had little mentoring. 

  "A boy has been likened to a hundred weight of good iron, which, in its ordinary form, may not be worth more than a dollar; but, when carbonized into steel, it is worth twice as much; when made into inch screws, a hundred dollars; if drawn into fine wire, five hundred dollars; if changed into fine needles, a thousand dollars; if into small fishhooks, twenty-five hundred dollars; if into minutest watch-screws, three hundred thousand dollars; if into finest hairsprings, one million, five hundred thousand dollars, or sixty times the value of an equal weight of gold. The higher the development, the more hammering, beating, rolling, pounding, and polishing, the more valuable the iron becomes.” 

  "I would be glad," says a wise man, "to see more parents understand that when they spend money judiciously to improve and adorn the house, and the grounds around it, they are in effect paying their children a premium to stay at home as much as possible, and enjoy it; but when they spend money unnecessarily in fine clothing and jewelry for their children, they are paying them a premium to spend their time away from home --- that is, in those places where they can attract the most attention, and make the most display."
 The Secret of Achievement, Orison Swett Marden

 “A boy who is coddled by his parent’s,” says Charles Nordhoff, “who sits behind the stove in winter when others are playing in the snow, who lies abed late and has his pockets full of candy, who must not go into the water until he has learned to swim, and whose precious life and breath are the objects of his own and his parents’ incessant solicitude, may look with pity upon his neighbor, who runs about barefooted, gets up early to feed the cows, has few clothes and no candy, and must work for his food; but all human experience and all history show that the hardier boy has by far the best chance of becoming a useful man, and making an honorable figure in the world.” Nature curses inaction, whether among the rich or poor. Orison Swett Marden 

Good listener

A Good Listener:

1. listens with spiritual ears open, hearing and understanding the spirit beneath the words;

2. listens with the heart and mind still and the mouth shut;

3. listens with no personal agenda;

4. listens with compassionate spiritual eyes, maintaining involved eye contact;

5. listens with a compassionate heart;

6. listens with a committed heart;

7. listens with attentiveness;

8. listens without judgment;

9. listens without fear;

10. listens with faith, knowing that the Spirit of God is at work to will and do according to His good purpose;

11. waits patiently, quietly and prayerfully through times of silence, making room for the unfolding of things previously too deep and too painful to even know or express;

12. counts it a privilege to witness a soul in the process of transformation, even when it doesn’t look like it;

13. offers to explore options wisely;

14. offers to pray when the time of tears and sharing ends;

15. consoles with words of comfort and confidence in the faithfulness of God, which is usually all anyone needs to hear;

16. waits to give advice until asked;

17. offers a hug;

18. recognizes that these are holy moments of eternal consequence;

19. keeps all holy moments completely confidential.

20. doesn’t try to take the place of the Holy Spirit.

ybic, Bryan

The Day Is Done

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling, 
And banish the thoughts of the day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of time. .......

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers form the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start:

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
of wonderful melodies. 

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction 
That follows after prayer.......

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, painting by Thomas Faed.

Dull and uncomfortable

 The following is a piece from William Law’s book, “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.” If you have never read it you have deprived yourself of one of Christendom’s classic inspirational books. The following piece addresses the objection that a strict life of religion leads one to a “dull and uncomfortable life”. His response to this objection is typical of his style throughout the book. 

  "Let us suppose a person destitute of that knowledge which we have from our senses, placed somewhere alone by himself, in the midst of a variety of things which he did not know how to use; that he has by him bread, wine, water, golden dust, iron chains, gravel, garments, fire etc. Let it be supposed that he has no knowledge of the right use of these things, nor any direction from his senses how to quench his thirst, or satisfy his hunger, or make any use of the things about him. Let it be supposed, that in his drought he puts golden dust into his eyes; when his eyes smart, he puts wine into his ears; that in his hunger, he puts gravel into his mouth; that in pain, he loads himself with the iron chains; that feeling cold, he puts his feet in the water; that being frighted at the fire, he runs away from it; that being weary, he makes a seat of his bread. Let it be supposed, that through his ignorance of the right use of the things that are about him, he will vainly torment himself whilst he live, and at last die, blinded with dust, choked with gravel, and loaded with irons.

Let it be supposed that some good being came to him, and showed him the nature and use of all the things that were about him, and gave him such strict rules of using them, as would certainly, if observed, make him the happier for all that he had, and deliver him from the pains of hunger, and thirst, and cold.

  Now could you with any reason affirm, that those strict rules of using those things that were about him, had rendered that poor man’s life dull and uncomfortable?

  Now this is in some measure a representation of the strict rules of religion; they only relieve our ignorance, save us from tormenting ourselves, and teach us to use everything about us to our proper advantage.” 

Very important piece.

  The compassion of Christ was so infinitely attractive to people because he never dealt with them in a mass, but always with distinct individuals. Nothing hurts our philanthropy so much as the habit of classing men together under certain great divisions, and dealing with all members of a class on the same principle. In this way our finer feelings become deadened. We look at the forest; Christ knows every tree, nay, each branch and twig. We view the crowds as Xerxes did from the eminence of his throne; Christ is familiar with the bitter story of each human life, its tragedy and comedy, its hope and fear, its temptations and burdens, down sittings and uprisings. 
  We read in the newspapers that eight or ten thousand men have fallen in a single battle, but Christ knows how each man fell, the havoc the news brought into the home circle, and the bitter tears for one whose step would never be heard returning along the garden path. The woman that was a sinner, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, were all distinct subjects of his thought. 
  The fountains of compassion would begin to rise in each heart, if we would begin to individualize the need of men, thinking not of the lame, but of the one lame man; not of the blind, but of one sunless face; not of the dumb, but of the one man whose tongue was locked; not of the flock, but of the one sheep which has wondered from the fold, and is in danger. Remember that the one lost sheep attracted the Shepherd, the one lost money-piece incited the woman's search, the one lost child returning, filled the father's home with mirth.   F.B. Meyer.

  I think this piece contains some of the best advice I have ever read. If you have no heart for missions; or care not for the plight of the homeless; if you are able to put out of your mind the oppressed; the hungry, naked, in prison, thirsty and hungry, this is the reason. It is not personal. We must investigate human suffering; expose ourselves to the needs of others, one person at a time, if we will ever find our hearts pouring out. To be a cheerful giver we must know someones plight to whom we are moved by God's compassion to care for, to love. Then we will want to give, and will be willing to sacrifice for their well being; we will become a cheerful giver. When we individualize, we sense a Godly bond and we will truly be blessed in our mourning for them. Christ censures those that He never knew. "Lord, when did I ever see you????" We must be personally involved to ever see Him in the poor.

Painting by Sienna van Rossum