Taming Tribulation Podcast

By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Vision is Act-seeing. Great Vision means that you see things DONE by way of your Imagination, even before they are attempted. Vision differs from Imagination. It starts from Imagination. Imagination takes the Pictures but Vision turns them over to the Architects who Build things from them. Men with Vision are Dominant.

Look Out.

Muster your Ideas. For Ideas germinate Vision. They give it Flesh and Blood, Feed its Fire Box, Control its Nerves — Pump its Heart. Ideas make Vision a living thing.

Look Out.

Despise Vision and you become a Hireling — dependent and owned. Court Vision and you become a Master — a Weilder of Power unlimited. Vision is Optimism with two healthy Eyes.

Look Out.

Vision comes to, and may be gained by, the humblest. It carries neither a Patent nor a Copyright. It’s a “tramp” element in the sense of freedom. But it must be sought, found — and then fed and clothed. Vision comes to no one unhunted.

Look Out.

Your Vision is Big or Little as you will it. The greater you aspire the greater will grow your Vision. The farther you See — the more you will Do. Vision is applicable to the everyday. It puts strength back of effort. It brings Permanence to your acts.

Look Out.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

This world needs Leaders more than it needs any other breed of men. Every line of activity calls for Leaders — every Home, every Business, every Town — every Nation. As long as there are people there will be plenty to Follow. The demand is for those who can Lead.

Be a Leader.

The greatest asset in Leadership is Courage. Cowards never Lead. Leadership requires great Patience. No one will follow an Irritable or Impatient Leader. Leadership requires Tact, Fairness and Confidence. One man can’t Lead another who distrusts his Leadership. Many other things are important — but these things are Imperative.

Be a Leader.

A Leader must inspire and wake up the sleeping POWERS in his followers. He must be able to draw out, into action, the very highest qualities of people. To be able to do this he must himself have a dean consistent Record. A man can’t command without Authority — a man can’t stir other people without first having stirred himself and become his own Master.

Be a Leader.

It is just as important to be a Leader in your own Home or Town as to be a Leader in your Country. It isn’t the special station in which a man Leads that makes his work most important but it’s HOW he Leads. This thing is true — that if you Lead well in the little affairs of life you can’t keep from becoming a Leader in the big affairs.

Be a Leader.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

For general Run-down-ed-ness try the Tonic — “Up.”

The “Up” Tonic has actually saved this big world from going off to a Hospital. Millions daily rise to sing its marvelous praises. Get Up. That is the first step. Stand Up.

The more you test your own Strength, the more you will pat yourself on the back for having such Strength.

Get Up — and stay Up. Cheer Up. The Best is always yet to come. Cheer Up. All you have to do is to go after the Best. And then, Cheer is so Magnetic. No matter where you work or where you go — you draw People and Fortune your way. Suppose the Cow did lack over the pail of Milk. There’s more Cow and there’s more Milk. Cheer Up!

Smile Up. Smiles don’t count when they hit the ground. Smile Up. When you face a day that seems knotted with kinks, Smile Up. There will be very few Kinks left. At every time and in every place — Smile Up. Make no exception. Smile Up.

Climb Up. Be satisfied with nothing. Climb Up. Gather up carefully and patiently the threads of Toil and Experience that make up your completed day and use them as a Rope with which to pull yourself higher. Climb Up.

Lift Up. If everybody were always Up and never Down, there would be no reason for this little Talk. Somebody is always Down and somebody is always Up. You who are Up help the one who is Down. Lift Up. Then YOU will be HIGHER Up.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Appreciation is the Salt that savors the work and life of the World. Without Appreciation for what we do and without Appreciation for what is done for us, the merest task would become a burden and the Sunshine would go down out of the Hearts of People.

Express your Appreciation.

Appreciation is often withheld for fear of an advantage being taken of it. Nothing could be more foolish. Such a man takes advantage of himself. Appreciation acts like oil on the dry, worn parts of a machine. It starts off everybody and everything with Smiles. Continued Appreciation keeps things running smoothly. Also it saves wear.

Express your Appreciation.

People waste away, render but half service, and finally drop back in the race amply through a lack of Appreciation. Appreciation is not only one of the most powerful Tonics on earth — it’s an actual necessary Food. And without it no one partakes of a Balanced Diet.

Express your Appreciation.

If you are an Employer and one of your Helpers does good work, tell him so. And if you are a Helper and your Employer encourages you on, tell him so in thanks and increased service. Appreciation stirs and stimulates. It goes to a man’s soul as an electric current to the sensitive nerve centers.

Express your Appreciation.

Appreciate the chance to Live. Appreciate your Health, your Home, your Father and Mother, your Friends, your Opportunity. Some of these you may not have. But Appreciate what you do have — and greater gifts will hourly be added.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

The greatest Battles being fought anywhere are those you fight daily inside your own Soul — against Anger, Lies, Habits, Misjudgments, Ill Health — Circumstances. Continually it is The Battle.

The Battle — to find out how far Brain and Body fiber can be put to the test in order to learn that The Man is in Command. Heroes pass us daily — and we know it not. Character and Strength come from Strife. Like the Diamond, you become valuable only after the most painstaking toil and effort.

We all come up out of the rough — we all demand cutting and polishing and shaping before we are able to stand out beautiful and inspiring.

But Battling should hold nothing of gloom and sourness. For even in Defeat, there is always something Woo. The main requisites are to keep Smile-bound, carry light Equipment, and in the words of Cromwell, “trust in God and keep your Powder dry.”

Welcome The Battle, as it goes on in your Life. Plan each little Skirmish with Care and with Courage. Be unmindful of the outside Crowd. Center on the destroying forces that face you and fight them to a finish. Then get ready for another Battle.

Charge the dissenters in your own ranks. But keep your face toward the Enemy, under whatever name it fights you. Always Battle to Win! By firmly and patiently loading and reloading the guns at your command you become a seasoned Soldier.

Little by little the intricate rules and principles of warfare become more simple and understandable. You begin to fed yourself a Leader and a Conqueror. Thus does The Battle — fought out by us hourly with fortitude — make real Men and Women of us all.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

There are a great many people on this earth that we don’t need and that we wish we could just easily push off. Knockers, for instance. There is a difference between a Knocker and a Kicker. Sometimes people kick to a good purpose. But a Knocker is a Knocker — a Pest and a Destroyer. Here is the way to push the Knockers into Oblivion —

Boost!

Boost your Town. Boost your Business. Boost your Friends. Boost your Ideas. Boost everything that helps other people or yourself. Be a Booster and you can’t help but be a Builder.

Boost!

The man who Boosts is a Leader. He is always followed by a crowd. His philosophy at once becomes contagious. He leaves a trail of Boosters in his path. While those who follow him cut his name into Bronze.

Boost!

When you don’t know what else to do — Boost. It makes little odds what you Boost so long as you Boost something. Once you form the habit you need have no fear for lack of things to Boost. They will spring up from every direction.

Boost!

If you want to be happy — Boost. If you want to get higher in the world — Boost. The Busiest and Wisest men that live will be glad to listen to you if you are a Booster. Learn the knack of Boosting. It’s a great knack — more important than any “Pull,” or “Influence” — and it’s bigger

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Thoughts are what happen when your Brain gets busy. Also, Thoughts are the Servants sent out by your Mind to shape and complete Deeds.

Feed your Thoughts the right Food. Thoughts are never inherited. Thoughts are individual and belong wholly to you who create them. So, in turn, you are responsible for them. Care for them with zeal. Keep them Clean and Wholesome.

Feed your Thoughts the right Food. Thoughts are the Master Builders of Fate. And as sure and plain as the chisel in the hands of the Sculptor leaves the lines and form of the finished Statue, so do Thoughts cut and shape your Character — and no man can change their work. Thoughts are Messengers of Events.

Feed your Thoughts the right Food. Train your Thoughts. Organize them. Concentrate them. Exercise them. Guard them. Glory in the Society of your Thoughts — alone. For your Thoughts are your best Companions. Besmirch them — betray them, and you loom useless and abandoned.

Feed your Thoughts the right Food. As your Mind grows in Strength, your Thoughts increase in Power. It is a wise plan, therefore, to fill your Mind with Thoughts that inspire and cheer and ennoble. For in the darker days of stress and rebellion that come into every life, the re-enforcements of great and useful Thoughts, step out to Protect and Save.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Be on Time.

Because of the lateness of Marshal Grouchy of the French army at the battle of Waterloo, Blucher had time to whip his army on to the help of Wellington. Napoleon ordered rightly. Had not the man to whom he entrusted those orders blundered — hesitated — been Late — the whole history of Europe would have been changed from 1815.

Be on Time. “The Train was late,” is the most frequent explanation after a terrible accident. What a multitude of lives have been lost, what an army of men and women have been deprived of position and honor, what untold suffering and humiliation have followed in the path of the late Mr. Late. Nothing pays better than Promptness.

Be on Time. Promptness is the act of being on the job when your name is called — and answering to it. Not NEARBY — but THERE.

Be on Time. Time tolls its minutes with even, regular strokes. The Job, the Appointment, the Order, the Friend, the Opportunity — won’t wait for the man who doesn’t respond on the dot.

Be on Time. Be not deceived by the cheap clanging of Gold and Silver — gifts through whose possession you imagine yourself immune to Honor and the Promptness of Appointments. There is no winning to the slothful. The world with all its wonderful offerings gives its Choice freely to the man of his word.

Be on Time.

Be on Time at your desk each day — at each and every Appointment throughout each day. The path to greatness starts by being on time each morning at your own Breakfast table. That’s the beginning anyway.

Be on Time.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Be Square.

The man of all men most miserable is the man with a worn, weary, weeping Conscience.

Be Square. Conscience is the fellow who sits on the throne of your Soul and calls out the Danger Signal when your life craft sights Icebergs. Conscience is the pilot of a man’s Hope toward Success. Conscience is the Busy Signal sign that halts a man just as he is about to do what he ought not to but wants to.

Be Square. Conscience is the Voice of Duty — in every-day clothes.

Be Square. Conscience is what you feel but do not hear. Conscience is the still, strong, silent, unseen Force that is ever with you — that invariably hunches you in the ribs — mute warner that you are on the wrong track, traveling in the wrong direction, playing the wrong game. Regardless of all other heeds, beck or call — hear, listen to — obey your Conscience to the letter.

Be Square. The Man with the Conscience makes the Business with a Conscience. The Business with the Conscience makes the Nation with the Conscience. Conscience in Power is real achievement a throne.

Be Square. As a Man or Woman, think it over. Conscience to you is as no other Conscience to any other Man or Woman. And the height to which Peace and Power may climb in you can be only in proportion to the Peace and Power which obedience to Conscience brings. So, follow your own Conscience all the way.

Be Square.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Grasp your Chances as they come. For it’s the approaching of the Goal — just ahead — the turning of the Chance into the Achievement, that stirs and spurs the striving man to the fought-out fact of the thing dreamed about, planned about — and done.

Take advantage of the smallest chance. First see it. Then grasp it! Then bolt it to your very soul. Remembering that Chances seen — and secured — breed Ideas, mold the Characters of mighty Men — and make Success sure.

Master the trivial. And the big things will loom into Deeds, perfectly plain, exact — undertakable. Especially is this true of the beginner of big things starting small. Deeds done determine the value of the Chance seized by the man.

The large tasks of the world lie hidden underneath the smallest Chances sought for with calm Patience and cool Courage. If past Chances appear neglected, passed by, or not seen, the future Chances streak toward you from in front — or maybe latent — but ready. Seek them, find them. Then hold them — “for keeps.” Success follows the Chances nailed down — things done.

You — to-day — go after the Chances. Take them, ruddy and new, and build from this day, things worthwhile and things for more than to-day.

Grasp your Chances as they come.

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