tion," says Professor Bain, “never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on the right. The essential precaution, therefore, is so to regulate the two opposing powers that the one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition has fortified it to such a degree as to enable it to cope with the opposition, under any circumstances. This is theoretically the best career of mental progress." The path is clear. In moving toward personal effectiveness beware of undertaking too much at the start. The goal worth while is not to be attained in one day. Introduce one method, then another; mend your ways day by day. The brain cells are plastic and subject to modification, but they are no mushroom growth and cannot be reshaped over night. Proceed steadily though slowly, allow yourself to succeed again and again as you advance. While the full efficiency desired is a matter of years, not days, each time a thing is done well the next time it is made easier. Suffer no exception until the new habit is securely rooted in the nervous system. The Influence of Habit Upon Creative Work Whatever aversion the business man has to forming habits is commonly found upon investigation to be due to a fear that once bound by habit he may degenerate into old-fogyism and lose his power to do creative work. To a certain extent this fear is justified. A habit unchecked may in the end assert mastery and, as is often seen among older men, lead its once brilliant victim to a treadmill existence. Yet after all the danger is much the same when an office boy is engaged; he, too, if unchecked might oust the general manager. The remedy, however, is certainly not to dispense with office boys, but simply to exercise discipline over them. When this is done, the habits, over which in the beginning we have labored, are transformed into faithful subordinates, ever on call, ready to serve. System then exists in the man, embedded in his nervous tissues. What has this result to do with our all-round executive effectiveness? Asked to make a rough classification of his activities, the business man is likely to respond, "Routine work and creative work." Going further he will probably say, "Routine work takes more time but creative work is more important." This is entirely correct. Creative work it is which enables a business man to rise to his full genius as an executive-but routine work must be done. It is precisely the systematization of this never-ending routine which the foregoing chapters have had in view. The big things in business, of course, do not center in details well handled, office layouts, private secretaries, short-cuts, daily plans and schedules; nevertheless, because they do care for his routine, the executive's personality is left unhampered to grapple with larger problems. Through their use he attains real freedom. The system with which we have been concerned to this point is thus the foundation of creative work. EXERCISES Standardizing Good Practice "Did I make the most of today?" It is a good question to raise. The man ambitious to forge ahead in business will put into the day's work his best, but, while this practically guarantees progress, as a matter of safety and satisfaction to himself he ought to check his results occasionally. Such a taking of stock let us make at this point. What we have sought in the preceding chapters is the systematization of the day's work, and we now desire to review in general terms our situation, This review is outlined in Test Chart 10. Suppose we grade our replies to the nine questions on the basis that standardization equals 100 per cent. Taking up each question in order we ask: "My present situation justifies what grade with respect to this question?" When all the replies have been graded, add the percentages and divide by nine. What do you average? This average when collected in the square underneath the outline represents your attainment to date. The raising of the number steadily until it approaches 100 per cent constitutes our next problem. We wish to solve this problem because the average represents our attainments capitalized as habits. Test Chart 10. The Systematization of the Day's Work is Here Reviewed in Nine General Questions Benjamin Franklin's Method A quaint example of how a person may utilize the ratchet principle of control through habits is found in Benjamin Franklin's "Autobiography," and the account is cited here, since the method adopted by Franklin worked successfully in a field where definite results are particularly difficult to secure and record. "It was about this time," writes Franklin, "I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that . . . the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established. . . . For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method. I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning. "These names of virtues, with their precepts, were: "1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. "2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. "3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. "4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. "5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. "6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. "7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly. "8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. "9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. "10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. "II. Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. "12. Chastity. "13. Humility. "My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone through the thirteen. ... "I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day. "I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every least offense against temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked 'T,' clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily examination." Whatever we may think of Franklin's undertaking, the method itself affords a good object lesson in personal management. Franklin: Set for himself a general purpose. Analyzed this general purpose into its constituent elements. Checked his progress regularly. Few problems facing the executive, hard though they appear, are able to withstand such a systematic assault. Applying the Principle Suppose we utilize the principles here exemplified, applied in a simpler form to the problems immediately before us. The exercises which have been worked through in connection with preceding chapters will have revealed various possibilities, |