Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

Today's reading was edited and adapted from Ready Money by George H. Knox, published in 1905.

Success is largely a matter of management. Self-mastery means more than doing right morally and controlling one's temper.

You indeed must have something of a temper if you are going to be good for anything.

Without a temper a person is like a piece of untempered steel.

But while it's necessary to have a temper, it is also necessary to control it,

at least most of the time, all the time would be asking too much. It is said that the person who

can control their temper can control others and have things their own way.

But sometimes our inclinations are harder to control than our temper.

It is understood that we should control our thoughts and actions, so far as not doing certain

things is concerned. But it is doing things that we don't like to do,

or when we don't like to do them, that is the real test,

for there is such a thing as impulse, moods, and the blues that we must contend with. It is said that a horse is a creature of impulse.

If it wants grass, it eats grass. If it wants to lie down, it lies down. We are sometimes also

a creature of impulse to a certain extent.

When we feel like quitting, we too often quit, whether we are through or not.

When we don't like the work, we quit for the same reason.

And when we get the blues, we quit simply because we are blue.

Now, in order to be a success, there's just one thing for us to do,

and that is to guide our lives by reason and judgment instead of impulse.

Not how do I like this, or how do I feel about it, but what is it going to do for me?

What success am I going to make of it?

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