Prepare Your Plan
Create your own environment and learn to control it. You
control your own mental environment by developing yourself. So go
on a crash program to clean up decisions. Get things done. Get
other things set up and started and organized. Start doing all the
things that would make you feel better. Exercise, diet, reading
more books. Open a floodgate of positive moves in the right
direction.
And, be thankful. Add up what you do have. Make an actual
as well as a conscious mental list of all you possess, tangible, as
well as intangible. In view of the four billion other inhabitants of
the world yours is probably an incredible list. That list and being
thankful should then lead to the big steps of discipline. The
discipline to sit up and listen, the discipline to pay attention, the
discipline to give people and kids the gift of your attention, the
discipline to be alert, take care of yourself, rest, eat properly, the
discipline to talk well and practice good manners. Courtesy is
contagious.
Take one day and see what a variety of positive steps you can
take and projects you can take on. At the end of the day go over it.
Write out the positive steps, the progress on projects, the rest, the
exercise, the meals, the hobbies, calls, records, conversations, and
letters. And speaking of calls and letters, write at least one
encouraging letter or thank you note. And make at least one
encouraging phone call or thank you call every week.
Then have a friend help you, as one helped me, to get all the
facts and prepare for action. From such a friendship, the greatest
gift you can draw is the truth. To one of my dearest friends I said
just the other day, “As my friend, do the one best thing you can do
for me, and that is, tell me the truth. From there I can grow, I can
start making wise decisions.” We all admire poise, confidence,
awareness, courtesy, good manners, courage, health, kindness,
attention, beauty, speech, expression and unhurried intensity and
talent at work. This can be your life.
Say with me today: “Today I will draw on all I have learned
and practiced, from curiosity to confidence and I will utilize it all to
meet the experiences and challenges that may come my way or that