The importance of will-power is recognized by most men, yet few deliberately
give any time or thought to its development. Why we resist one thing and yield
to another, may be due to "the strongest motive," but what more particularly
concerns us in the study of self-confidence is in what way this mighty power can
be built and directed.

Does desire control the will, or will desire? The psychologist points to the
testimony of consciousness as confirming our freedom to choose a certain course
and to pursue it, with the feeling that we could choose some other course if we
desired.

In either event, there is no feeling of compulsion, and this would seem to
confirm the idea of freedom of will.

Let desire, then, be the starting-point of the student's attempt to educate his
will. To strengthen immediately his desire for a strong will, he should dwell
intently upon the advantages this power will confer upon him. He should think
deeply upon the satisfaction that will come to him from doing things definitely
and promptly, and the increased self-confidence that will surely follow from the
habit of finishing in a thorough manner everything he undertakes. By dwelling
long and earnestly upon the inestimable value of a strong, well-directed will,
there will grow in his mind an intense desire to possess this faculty, to use it
to his daily advantage, and finally by its aid to realize his life's ambition.

There are many things we desire to avoid, such as poverty, pain, misfortune, and
ill-health; while there are things we much desire to have, such as wealth,
power, knowledge, and independence. It is, however, the intensity of our desire
that counts for most. "I desire to become a good public speaker," says one. "How
strong is your desire?" asks the teacher. "Will you practice regularly every day
for an hour?!" "I don't think I can," says the student, "because my time is so
much occupied during the day, and at night I am too tired." "What personal
sacrifices are you ready to make?" "None," is the answer. "Then," replies the
teacher, "your desire is not strong enough to make you a good public speaker."

This applies with equal force to you who read these pages in search of help to
develop your self-confidence. How strong is your desire to acquire this great
power? Is it strong enough to lead you carefully to read all the suggestions
offered here and to put them into actual practice? Will you enter upon this
study with intense earnestness and perseverance? Will you make reasonable
sacrifice to achieve this great end? Your answer to such questions as these will
largely determine what your success will be.

In the life of every man there are many times when he is in an exalted frame of
mind. There is a sudden realization of new and mysterious power, when, indeed,
all things seem possible to him. He there upon resolves to do better and greater
things than ever before, but in a little while this feeling dies away, leaving
only the slightest impress behind it. The student bent upon educating his will
should resolve in his mind to take advantage of these favorable moments to
fortify such thoughts with other favorable thoughts, to bring instantly to bear
upon himself every conception and emotion that will deepen this sudden
inspiration, and to proceed without delay to put these results into actual
practice. "Seize the very first possible opportunity," advises "William James,
"to act on every resolution you make and on every emotional prompting you may
experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain."

To choose intelligently between our complex and conflicting desires we must
avoid impulsiveness. In every important matter we shall weigh things pro and
con, and carefully consider the advantages, dangers, and probabilities before
determining our course of action. This will teach us caution and self-restraint.
We are told to "look before we leap," to "think twice," and again that "haste
makes waste." A little more prudence and deliberateness would prevent most of
the serious mistakes of life.

Sometimes an idea must be repeated many times before an enduring impression can
be made upon the mind. This is illustrated in modern methods of advertising. The
first time you see an announcement it impresses you perhaps feebly. But it is
repeated again and again, in newspaper, magazine, letter, and fence-poster,
until at length a sufficient number of impressions lead you to become a
purchaser. Mental habits are established in the same way. A suggestion is made
to your mind once, twice, a hundred, or a thousand times. Some day this repeated
suggestion has become a fixed habit, and fulfils its duty unconsciously. The
power of reiteration is so great that, if a timid man were to repeat aloud for a
few minutes daily, with earnestness and concentration, a list of words such as
courage, valor, bravery, gallantry, intrepidity, manliness, pluck, backbone, and
audacity, he would shortly find these qualities being incorporated in his own
personality.

We must be particularly careful about outside influences. A certain course of
conduct is decided upon, after mature consideration, when suddenly we yield to
the interposition of a friend who advises an altogether different course. Then
when it terminates disastrously, we blame our friend for his interference, and
our self for weakness of will. There are times, of course, when the advice of
others should be sought and considered, but once having determined what our
conduct shall be, let us pursue it without hesitation.

We should be as frank with ourselves as we are with others. We are not slow to
point out to them the dangers that lie in a certain course. We can quite as
earnestly advise, caution, and urge ourselves in what is best to do.

A realization of personal responsibility has an important influence upon the
building of the will. We owe it to our manhood, to others dependent upon us, and
to our eternal destiny, that we make the most of ourselves here and now. Our
will, no less than our other powers, is given to us for intelligent development.
As we more clearly realize this responsibility we shall see the vital importance
of willpower and make an increasing effort to build it for high and definite
ends. "The education of the will," says Dr. Morell, "is really of far greater
importance, as shaping the destiny of the individual, than that of the
intellect; and it should never be lost sight of by the practical educator, that
it is only by the amassing and consolidating of our volitional residua in
certain given directions that this end can be secured. Theory and doctrine, and
inculcation of laws and propositions, will never of themselves lead to the
uniform habit of right action. It is by doing that we learn to do; by
overcoming, that we learn to overcome; by obeying reason and conscience, that we
learn to obey; and every right act which we cause to spring out of pure
principles, whether by authority, precept, or example, will have a greater
weight in the formation of character than all the theory in the world."

The fatal habit of procrastination should be fought persistently. To do things
promptly, clearly, and systematically, will insure peace of mind and pleasure in
one's work. A business man upon being asked how he managed to attend to so many
intricate details of his daily business with apparently no care or worry, said
it was due to an invariable rule to clear off his desk by the close of the day
in order to begin the following day clear and fresh. This same plan can be
advantageously followed in the ordering of one's mind. Instead of permitting
ideas and plans to lie about the mind in confusion, like scattered papers on an
untidy desk, they should be classified, "pigeon-holed," and put into their
proper places. Then a man can take a problem at a time; give it due
consideration, and dispose of it in satisfactory and orderly fashion. This
actually doing things gradually strengthens the will and at length renders it
capable of great achievement.

To begin is often half the battle. "I shall start to-morrow," pleads the
indolent man, forgetting that "to-morrow" never comes. "Next winter I shall
study
French, drawing, shorthand, or public speaking," says another man of good
intention. But the season comes and goes, and at the close he finds he has not
done one of these things. Procrastination, love of ease or amusement,
indefiniteness, imprudence, or miscalculation, have conspired against him, so a
whole lifetime may be frittered away in needless and unproductive occupations,
due not to lack of ability but to weakness of will. Goethe sings:

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute. Whatever you can do, or dream you
can begin it."

It is surprising how difficulty yields before a strong and earnest will. A
little more resolution and effort, a determination "to do or die," and the
seemingly impossible is accomplished. This has been remarkably illustrated in
the achievements of men of advanced age. Cato learned Greek, Plutarch studied
Latin, and Socrates music, in old age. Gladstone became again Premier of England
at eighty-three, and spoke with great eloquence, while Tennyson at the same age
wrote his imperishable hymn, "Crossing the Bar." A record of the great things
done by men between the ages of seventy and ninety, chiefly through indomitable
willpower, would include such names as Michelangelo, Goethe, Titian, Wesley,
Kant, Von Moltke, Spencer, Jefferson, Browning, Clay, Calhoun, and Bismarck.

"Where there is a will there is a way," is still true, and if a man draws upon
the infinite resources within him he may exclaim with Napoleon, "There shall be
no Alps." No man should allow temporary failure to disarm or discourage him. A
too easy success would hardly be worth the winning. It is the realization of
difficulties overcome, of opposition conquered, and of great heights scaled that
bring satisfaction to the mind and joy to the heart of the victor.

In his suggestive essay on "Self-Culture," Channing reminds us that "A vigorous
purpose makes much out of little, breathes power into weak instruments, disarms
difficulties, and even turns them into assistances." A man who firmly says "I
will," is already on the way. But he must not suffer himself to be lured away
into by-paths. Once the goal is fixed before him, let him walk unswervingly
toward it. Dr. Jules Payot, in his inspiring work on "The Education of the
Will," says:

"When a young man has formed this very important and productive habit of
deciding things definitely and of doing his work without feverish haste, but in
a thorough, straightforward and honest manner, there is no high intellectual
destiny to which he may not aspire. Whether he has new ideas or whether he sees
old questions from a new point of view, he is going to harbor these ideas in his
thoughts during eight or ten years of steady work. They will gradually become
surrounded by hundreds of similes and comparisons and likenesses hidden to
others, which will become organized and nourish the original ideas until they
have grown strong and powerful. And just as great trees spring from acorns, so
from such thoughts, fostered by one's attention for many years, there will be
put forth powerful books, which will be to honest souls in their struggle
against evil what clarions are sounding the charge to soldiers, or else these
thoughts will become concrete and will express themselves in a beautiful,
harmonious life of uprightness and generous activity."*

* " The Education of the Will," Jules Payot. Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1910.

To no one is a strong will more essential than to the public speaker. Wendell
Phillips had this power in high degree. The more an audience refused to listen
to him, the greater was his determination to compel them. This gift it was that
made him " an American patriot, a modern son of liberty, with a soul as firm
and as true as was ever consecrated to unselfish duty, pleading with the
American conscience for the chained and speechless victims of American
inhumanity."

As an instance of ready courage, supported by a strong will, it is related of
John Hunter, a celebrated surgeon of his day, that he found pleasure and
relaxation in studying the habits and instincts of animals. Two leopards that he
had kept chained broke loose one day and entering the yard were surrounded by a
number of dogs. Aroused by the barking of the dogs, Dr. Hunter rushed into the
yard, laid hold of the leopards, and took them back to their den. Then, in
reflecting on the risk he had incurred, he became so agitated that he was on the
point of fainting. During the reign of James II, Sir John Cochrane became a
prisoner. At that time the mail between Edinburgh and London was conveyed in
saddle bags by a mounted rider. Cochrane's daughter, knowing the time when a
warrant for her father's execution was expected, attired herself in men's
clothes, and, armed and mounted, waited at a lonely spot between Berwick and
Belford until the carrier with the mail-bag containing the death warrant
approached. Confronting him with pistols, she induced him promptly to relinquish
his bag. A second warrant was then sent for, but it was seized as was the other
by the heroic girl. By this time Sir John's father, through influence and
bribery, had secured a pardon from the King. If one's motive be strong enough,
one may attempt almost anything, however difficult and dangerous, and if the
will be firm and resolute, may hope to achieve it.