Chapter 21 Chapter 21

Alpine skiing is a race between people and circumstances and time.Whenever I see the razor-thin amount of time between winning and losing, I shake my head in sympathy for the losers. The first place time is 1:37.22. The second place time was 1:27.25. In other words, there is only 0.03 seconds between the champion and mediocrity, not even enough time to blink! What is the difference between a champion and a loser?luck?maybe.But maybe the champion put in a little more work, took - a little more time.Perhaps the champion will work on his bad habit until it is out of his behavior.In this way, he used a little less time in downhill skiing, which was enough to make him successful.

Now back to your own situation.The first thing people have to admit is that you do have some, maybe a lot, bad habits.And you know what they are, maybe procrastination, indulgence, laziness, slovenliness, bad temper, lack of perseverance.It must be more than that. You must know in your heart that as long as these bad habits exist, you will not be able to make much progress. Whenever I see Washington's portrait on the dollar bill, his calm, confident, self-controlled face against the white curly hair, I find it hard to believe that he had red hair and a fiery temper in his youth. If he hadn't learned to use self-control to change his bad habits, he probably wouldn't have been able to lead the untrained militia to defeat King George's army, and he probably wouldn't have become the first president of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin may be regarded as the most influential great man in American history, he was knowledgeable and talented.He was patriot, scientist, writer, diplomat, inventor, painter, philosopher.He taught himself French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and guided the United States on the road to independence. But even Franklin had bad habits, as he knew it well.Uniquely, he was determined to find ways to change them.He is worthy of being an inventor, and he has formulated for himself a wonderful recipe for quitting bad habits.He first listed thirteen conditions necessary for success: temperance, silence, order, decisiveness, frugality, diligence, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, purity, and humility.

In that immortal autobiography, he mentioned the method of using this magic formula. "I intend to acquire these thirteen virtues, and form them into habits. In order not to be distracted, I do not expect to do them all at once, but to proceed one by one until I can possess them all." In his secret recipe, he borrowed a bit from Pythagoras' advice, which everyone should reflect on daily.He designed the first set of success record sheets: "I made a booklet, and each virtue takes up one page, draw a grid, and if you find something that you haven't reached that day during introspection, you can mark it with a pen."

What effect did the magic formula have on this great man? Frank Begg, the writer who is good at writing self-motivation books, once wrote in the book "Selling from Failure to Success", "When Franklin was seventy-nine years old, he wrote a full fifteen page, especially this one great invention of his, because he believed that all his success and happiness depended on it." Franklin wrote in his autobiography: "I hope that my children and grandchildren can follow this method and benefit." Following Franklin's recipe, Frank Berger went from a mediocre salesman to the founder of the American life insurance business.

Does this recipe work for you?