WORK AND HABITS

BY ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE

Every man's problem is how to be effective. Consciously or unconsciously, the question you are asking yourself is, "How shall I make my strength count for most in this world of effort?" And this is the question which every one of us ought to ask himself. But not for the purpose of mere selfish gain: not to get money for the sake of money, or fame for the sake of fame, but for the sake of usefulness in the world; for the sake of helpfulness to those we love and of all humanity. Selfishness poisons all it touches, and make all achievement dead-sea fruit which turns to ashes on the lips.

So the great question, "How shall I make the most of myself," which every worker in the world is asking, must be nobly asked, and therefore unselfishly asked if you would have it wisely answered. There are two words that solve this query of your destiny, and those two words are work and habits.

I know that I am addressing men who toil; and I have reached an age where I consider no one but workers worth while. But by those who toil, I do not mean only those who work with their hands. I mean those who work with their brain, as well. I mean the engineer who drives a locomotive, but also the inventor, who created it; the mason and mechanic who erects a building, and also the thoughtful man who conceived it, and the energetic man who made it possible; the printer who puts upon the page the words of useful books, but also the poet who dreams the dreams that printer reproduces, the novelist who enchants our weary hours, the economist who in

structs us in the facts of life and the duties of citizenship, and all of that glorious company of brain workers who uplift, make pure, and glorify humanity. I mean the farmer who sows and reaps, but also the miller who, with his earned capital grinds the farmer's products into food for the feeding of the people. I mean the banker as much as the drayman; the physician as much as the street-car motorman; the statesman who honestly and faithfully labors to make this nation better, as much as the section hand. In short, I mean every man who with mind or muscle toils at the tasks which our mutual needs bring to each one of us.

The first thing necessary to the doing of good work is that the man who does it shall love his work. Lasting work means loving work. The greatest cathedral on earth is that at Chartres, in France. No man knows its architect or its builders. It was erected according to plans devised by holy men who cared nothing for their own glory, but cared everything for the glory of Him whose servants they were. It was built by thousands of artizans, who came from all over France and gave their services without price, and even without record, as a matter of worship. The materials were furnished by tens of thousands of peasants, and each stone they contributed was consecrated by prayer and swung to position with the power of a divine affection. And so the cathedral at Chartres stands, and will forever stand, as the highest type of sacred architecture the world has ever known. Such devotion to our daily tasks is not possible to any of us in the hurried and harried civilization of to-day. We must have bread; we must fill our home with the necessities and comforts of life; our first business is to make our loved ones happy. Wages, profits, and all kinds of money reward for all we do is absolutely necessary. Yet those wages and profits will be higher if we are in love with the work which brings them to us. They will not only be greater, but every cent of them will add to our lives a sweetness and fragrance which the pay that is earned by an unwilling worker never brings. The man who is in love with his work, his reward goes further in its

purchasing power than the man who hates the task that brings him his livelihood. The well-earned dollar is a wise dollar; the badly-gotten dollar is a foolish dollar.

Fall in love with your work-that is the first rule for doing your work well. It is also the golden rule of happiness. Fall in love with your work, and your labor will bring you joy as well as money.

All the happiness this life affords is found in three things; first, a true relation to God; second, the care of other people; third, the doing with all your might work which you love to do. There is no true and lasting happiness possible from any other source. Neglect God, care nothing for other people, despise your work; and wealth will buy you nothing but misery-power will bring you nothing but heartache. Build your life upon these three foundations and you build your house upon a rock. Build your life on disbelief in God, on selfishness to others, on hatred of your own work-and you build your house upon the sand.

Every man can be in love with his work if he will always think of how well he can do that work, and not how easily he can do it. Let every one of us, as we go about our daily tasks, keep saying to himself every moment: "I am going to do my work so well to-day that to-night I will congratulate myself upon it." That is the way to get others to congratulate you upon it. Win your own intelligent approval in the doing of your work and you will also win the honest approval of your fellow men. And when a man intelligently approves of himself, and his fellow men approve of him, he has made his daily toil yield not only money, but also the sweetest fruit of life.

Never say to yourself that your work is too hard; say to yourself instead, "I will do it so well that the very doing of it will make it easy," and never forget that the only real way to do your work easily is to do it well. Never pity yourself. Self-pity begins a sickness of the soul from which few recover. Never undervalue yourself. Believe in yourself. Believe that you can do your work well, and then make good. Never doubt yourself. Faith in one's

self unlocks those hidden powers that all of us have, but so few of us use. Every man and woman has undeveloped strength undreamed of until emergencies call it forth. Every one of us has been surprized at how much we can do, and how well we can do it, when we have to do it. Never wait for these emergencies to call out the might within you. Realize your assets every day. God has made an investment in every one of us; shall we go to Him when our life is done, giving Him a return upon that investment? When He invested in you He meant that you should pay Him dividends in the betterment of the world, and helpfulness to your fellow men. You can do this only by your best work. And your best work is possible only by faith in yourself and by love of your work.

The second practical rule for doing good work yourself is to appreciate and praise the good work of others. Never envy anybody. Jealousy in the man who spends his strength envying the good work of another man will have little strength left to do good work himself. Get the habit of happiness over other people's success. Practise praising the work of others. It will make your fellow man happy, but it will make you happier than it makes him. It will encourage him, but it will encourage you more.

In public life, when a man, whether friend or enemy, makes a good fight for a good law or against a bad one, or takes a stand for righteousness, or delivers an effective speech for a noble cause, I make it a point to praise that man, not only to the world and to himself, but to praise him in the secret councils of my own soul. I do this as a matter, first, of justice, and, second, of my own spiritual and moral strengthening. When in my own conscience as well as to other people, I praise that man's achievement, I have made my mind and soul stronger for doing my own work; I have fortified my spirit for making my own fights.

But if in my heart I hate him for having done this thing well, I have weakened myself for the doing of my own tasks. I have lessened my own courage for the battles