Improve Your Time
Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon [1]
the improvement of moments more than upon any other
one thing. A great amount of time is consumed in talking
nothing, doing nothing, and indecision as to what one
should do. If one would be successful in the future, let [5]
him make the most of the present.
Three ways of wasting time, one of which is con-
temptible, are gossiping mischief, making lingering calls,
and mere motion when at work, thinking of nothing or [10]
planning for some amusement,—travel of limb more
than mind. Rushing around smartly is no proof of ac-
complishing much.
All successful individuals have become such by hard
work; by improving moments before they pass into hours, [15]
and hours that other people may occupy in the pursuit
of pleasure. They spend no time in sheer idleness, in
talking when they have nothing to say, in building air-
castles or floating off on the wings of sense: all of which
drop human life into the ditch of nonsense, and worse [20]
than waste its years.
“Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.” [25]