George Matthew Adams: DISCIPLINE

Friday, February 26, 2010

DISCIPLINE

The Deseret News - Jun 11, 1913

DISCIPLINE
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

DISCIPLINE in its best sense means to educate. And to Educate is to bring out of yourself your very best abilities in orderly fashion. There is no lost motion in the action of a well Disciplined army. Every move counts. The wonder of any of our great modern business enterprises is its smooth working Discipline.

Maximum Power demans Maximum Discipline.

To Discipline your will, your Emotions, your Desires is no easy job. To smoe it is a tremendous task. But to the man who through patient and determined effort finally brings his every ability into control and harmony, there is created a momentum that makes the greatest works come easy and enveloped with delight--all of which is the result of Discipline.

Maximum Power demans Maximum Discipline.

Those privilieged with the daily association of President Wilson marvel at the case with which he accomplishes things. There is nothing marvelous about it at all. For a decade or more he has been practicing what he has been teaching--putting Discipline to work daily in his own personal house.

Maximum Power demans Maximum Discipline.

Gather your forces together. Discipline your mind and your body. Do many things each day for no other reason than that you would rather not do them. Draw in the loose cords. Neglect nothing that is important. Put Discipline to work.

George Matthew Adams was a newspaper columnist, author, writer, philosopher and publisher who founded the Adams Newspaper Service in 1907. He is the author of several books and "You Can" is the most famous of his works.

Mr. Adams became a well-know columnist with his "Today's Talk" which was a kind of short essay he would write for sundry newspapers and had an inspirational appeal for the average American citizen of the time. His syndicate supplied features to many newspapers worldwide for more than fifty years.

Furthermore, it is known that Mr. Adams owned a collection of rare etchings and more than 5000 books, many of them first editions.

Mr. Adams on etchings:

"Etchings early appealed to me because of their intimate character. Some of them seem to have been etched from the heart."

Mr Adams on books:

"I walk all over many of the books I read. Anyone who comes across them after I am through with them will see my tracks. That is, my pencil tracks, which, in reality are the tracks of my mind at it travels through a book."

"I am certain that anything with the word book attached to it will ever be interesting and fascinating to me."

George Matthew Adams passed away on 1962.

QUOTES BY GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS:

* He who does not get fun and enjoyment out of every day ... needs to reorganize his life.

* If you have nothing else to do, look about you and see if there isn't something close at hand that you can improve! It may make you wealthy, though it is more likely that it will make you happy.

* Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.

* No matter what our ambition, that ambition must be fed, daily, without a break. Desires vanish quickly, unless they are fed.

* The hero becomes a hero because he put something into the world that we would like to have put there.

* We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.

* Each day can be one of triumph if you keep up your interests.

* Just be yourself and you will not only be unique in a large way, but you will be an honest expression of a human being.

* Books express much of the personality of the author, so that we often feel we know him, in a rather intimate fashion.

* Devotion to the simple things of life, and to beauty, is what ennobles character and puts a glow to the very countenance. You can always tell from the smile of a person whether there is happiness imbedded in the heart.

* I WISH there were not so many unhappy people in the world. Cheerfulness is power and something that feeds the soul.

* Every human being should be free to choose his own way of life, and select his own sphere of influence, just as long as he does not encroach upon the same individual rights of his fellow man.

* It's what each of us shows, and how, that gives to us character and prestige. Seeds of kindness, goodwill, and human understanding, planted in fertile soil, spring up into deathless friendships, big deeds of worth, and a memory that will not soon fade.

* If love is the greatest thing in the world, then hate is the greatest evil, for hate is the opposite of love. Love attracts, hate repels. Love is life, hate is death. Hate is the worst waste that can enter a human soul.

* If newspapers printed nothing but news, the readers would be sour and depressed.

* It is fine to forgive and forget so far as in your power lies, but to be highly tuned to the receipt of beautiful words from a warm and understanding heart is to own one of the finest gifts God gives to human beings.

* He who understands does not resent. Resentment is the play of little minds.

* It is better to aim for Perfection and miss it, than to aim at Imperfection and hit it.

* Opportunity is kinder to folks than folks are to it. Is it in the cycle of events that a man should not be used too hard, but that chance after chance should be given him to prove his worth—only to allow him to fail after his mettle has proved too unworthy.

* Every one of us, unconsciously, works out a personal philosophy of life, by which we are guided, inspired, and corrected, as time goes on. It is this philosophy by which we measure out our days, and by which we advertise to all about us the man, or woman, that we are. . . . It takes but a brief time to scent the life philosophy of anyone. It is defined in the conversation, in the look of the eye, and in the general mien of the person. It has no hiding place. It's like the perfume of the flower — unseen, but known almost instantly. It is the possession of the successful, and the happy. And it can be greatly embellished by the absorption of ideas and experiences of the useful of this earth.

* Each day of your life, as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, you can square away for a happy and successful day. It's the mood and the purpose at the inception of each day that are the important facts in charting your course for the day. We can always square away for a fresh start, no matter what the past has been. It's today that is the paramount problem always. Yesterday is but history.