Where There Is Light

CHAPTER 8

Bringing Out the Best Within You

 Continues…….

Introspection: A Secret of Progress

The first thing to do is to introspect. Take stock of yourself and your habits, and find out what is standing in your way. Often it is inertia, or lack of definite, undivided effort and attention. Sometimes there are habits that need to be weeded out of the garden of your life, so that true happiness may become more firmly rooted.

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One secret of progress is self-analysis. Introspection is a mirror in which to see recesses of your mind that otherwise would remain hidden from you. Diagnose your failures and sort out your good and bad tendencies. Analyze what you are, what you wish to become, and what shortcomings are impeding you.

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Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.

Everyone should learn to analyze himself dis-passionately. Write down your thoughts and aspirations daily. Find out what you are—not what you imagine you are!—because you want to make yourself what you ought to be. Most people don’t change because they don’t see their own faults.