A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1928, Page 1

A DAILY MESSAGE

BE CHEERFULLY UNCONTENTED

Don’t he too satisfied, however pleasant your environment; you may he stagnating.

Don’t —be too contented, however great your popularity; contentment can put you to sleep, and popularity is not always a compliment. Don't he too sure that your opinions are the last word on every subject; there are other points of view, and they may be right. Don’t he too comfortable, however beautiful your home; many an upward aspiration has been suffocated by too much comfort. And, in any ease, how can you? Other humans are living in hovels.

Don’t allow tapestries, carpets, and bric-a-brac, however rare and lovely, to lull you into slothful ease; it is the tug of inertia. Beware!

Don’t he a slave to fpshion, authority, or precedent'. Make precedent! He your own authority! You were meant to ho more than an animated mannequin at a fashion parade, anyhow.

Don’t he just a “ well-bred sheep!” A cattle dog has more character, and gets more fun.

Don’t he \ follower all the time. Headers are still popular, and there's always room at the top. Don’t cling to outworn ideas and methods; yesterday’s standards are obsolete; to-day’s are better; to-mor-row's 1 will he hotter still. Keep up! Help the old world on its way!

The germ of great achievement may slumber on within you because you are too contented. That kind of contentment will kill your enthusiasm; every man’s strong point is his enthusiasm. The enthusiast vaccinates everybody in his vicinity. Wake up, brother! Be uncontented, unsatisfied—but hopefully, cheerfully, intelligently, enthusiastically so. Strangle the tug of inertia —or it will strangle you!

—M. PRESTON STANLEY