I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward and upward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Ninety percent of the things you do might just as well be turned over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed, show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do them automatically. I am the servant of all great people and alas! of all failures as well. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine, plus the intelligence of a person. You can run me for profit or run me for ruin. It makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you! Who am I? I AM HABIT.

Years ago Paul Harvey described how Eskimos in the North kill wolves. They take a razor sharp knife, dip it in blood and freeze it. Next, they bury the handle of the knife in the frozen tundra with the blade sticking up. Wolves, attracted to the scent of blood, come to lick the blade. The cold numbs the wolfï¿½s tongue and by the time he reaches the blade heï¿½s unaware he is licking a sharp edge. As he begins to bleed, he licks even faster until ultimately he bleeds to death.

Early on, some drugs and alcohol make a person feel good and they enjoy the feeling. After a few ï¿½tripsï¿½ on those drugs and alcohol, however, they begin to lose their sense of perspective and the drugs have less and less effect.

ï¿½Zig Ziglar

Remember that anger is an emotion, and an emotion is always warm, even hot. When a person gets angry, she/he first tend to clench, the voice rises, muscles tense, the body becomes rigid. So deliberately oppose the heat of this emotion with coolnessï¿½freeze it out. Deliberately, by an act of will, keep your fists or teeth from clenching. Hold your fingers out straight. Deliberately reduce your tone; bring it down to a whisper. Remember that it is difficult to argue in a whisper.

Anger expresses the accumulated vehemence of a multitude of minor irritations. These irritations, each rather small in itself, gather force by reason of the one being added to the other, finally blaze forth in a fury that often leaves us abashed at ourselves. Make a list of everything that irritates you. No matter how inconsequential it may be or how silly each is, list it just the same. This will dry up the tiny rivulets that feed the great river of anger.

When a hurt-feeling situation arises, get it straightened out as quickly as possible. Go to someone you trust and pour it out to him until not a vestige of it remains within you. Then forget it.

Pray for the person who has hurt your feelings. Continue this until you feel the malice fading away. Sometimes you may have to pray for quite a while to achieve that result.

ï¿½Normal Vincent Peale