Text of the meditation
In order to achieve the higher forms of success, a person must give up anxiety, hurry and fussiness. Pressing forward persistently along a given way is sure to lead to a destination that is definitely associated with that way. Frequently going aside, or turning back, will render effort fruitless; no destination will be reached; success will remain far off.
Effort, and more effort, and then effort again, is the keynote of success. As the simple old saying has it: "If at first you don't succeed, try again." All the precepts of successful business people are precepts of doing; all the precepts of the wise teachers are precepts of doing.
To cease to do is to cease to be of any use in the economy of life. Doing means effort, exertion. Transmute the energy that wears and breaks down into that deeper and less obtrusive kind that preserves and builds up.
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.
