If we have so
much self-reformation to accomplish as to dissipate our attention,
it may be wise to decide which changes are most immediately important
and to limit our endeavors at first to those.
Included in this preliminary task is the fixation in our minds of the
reasons for the lines of conduct we intend to follow, all the motives
that draw us toward them. This will show us whether we, i.e., our
better selves, really wish to acquire these new habits, are really
convinced that they are right, or whether we are merely putting before
ourselves some one else's ideal which we vaguely feel we ought or are
expected to follow. One can often convince one's self quite thoroughly
of ideas one did not really believe in by this method of suggestion;
but if we are to control our own morals we wish to control them not
by some one else's ideals but by our own. If a thing is really right
to do there must be definite and legitimate reasons for the doing which
can appeal to our intelligence and our emotions; these we should bring
into the foreground of our thought and express as clearly and forcibly
as possible.
We have now the material for our work. We must so hammer these
resolutions and the motives to them into our heads that they will be
vividly conscious to us when they are needed. In this process there
are three main points to be remembered - Concentration, Iteration,
and Assertion.
(1) Concentration.
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