Text of the meditation
Passion is not power; it is the abuse of power, the dispersion of power. When that young man whom I knew, passing through continual reverses and misfortunes, was mocked by his friends and told to desist from further effort, and he replied, "The time is not far distant when you will marvel at my good fortune and success," he showed that he was possessed of that silent and irresistible power that has taken him over innumerable difficulties, and crowned his life with success.
If you do not have this power, you may acquire it by practice, and the beginning of power is likewise the beginning of wisdom. You must begin by overcoming those purposeless trivialities to which you have until now been a willing victim. Boisterous and uncontrolled laughter, slander and idle talk, and joking merely to raise a laugh: all these things must be put aside as so much waste of valuable energy.
Be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
