Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1909 — OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES. [ARTICLE]

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES.

Every time a man thinks or talks of the difficulties that confront him, unless he does so in order to overcome them, he weakens himself. No difficulty is of any value in the world save as an invitation to defeat it. To recognize an obstacle as something that cannot be changed or circumvented, is to lessen our power against it. Most men do not realize this. They seem to think it helps them to tell someone else about-the peculiar hardships" of their work. They miss the fact that to do so is like opening one of their own arteries and letting the blood run out. Successful workers in every field find life too short, and time and energy too precious, to* waste any of it in a lament over what they wish were different. But to recognize and discuss a difficulty for the sole purpose of discovering liow to overcome it is good employment for one’s time. Difficulties ought to be used like tenpins—never bring them up except for the purpose of knocking them down.