One of the most necessary as well as beneficial practices a man can
have is to take fifteen minutes to an hour each day and devote the time
to sizing up things, to planning the day's work for the morrow, to
threshing the wheat from the chaff, to reviewing the accomplishments of
the day.
Sizing up things can only be well done in solitude.
The benefits of sizing up things in solitude are so great it is a
wonder more has not been written on the subject.
Plants grow in darkness, yet the common understanding is they grow in
sunshine. The sunshine is absolutely necessary for the growth of the
plant, but the real growth is done in the quiet darkness.
A man's brain develops in solitude, yet bustle and crowds and business
activity are as necessary to the man as sunshine is to the plant.
The real brain and moral growth takes place in solitude.
Here again we must remember the law of compensation, for if a plant had
all sunshine and no shadow, and if a man had all hustle and bustle and
no solitude, it would be like a machine without a governor; the man and
the plant would run so fast something would have to give way.
On the other hand compensation says that if a man is too much in
solitude, or the plant too much in darkness, they will wither and die.
Man has always had strong admiration for the strong individual, whether
bird, beast, fish, plant or human.
There are two kinds of birds, the kind that lives in flocks, like the
blackbird and the wild duck, and the kind that lives by itself, like
the eagle. Amongst birds the eagle is chosen as an emblem for the flag,
and never the duck or blackbird.
Amongst beasts there are two classes, the herd kind like sheep, and the
strong individual, like the lion. The lion is the symbol of strength
and courage, the sheep the symbol of innocence and simplicity. The lion
appears on coat of arms but not the sheep.
In the fish family there are two classes, the kind that lives in
schools, like the mackerel, and the kind that lives by itself, like the
whale.
When first the savage drew a rude picture of a fish on his hut it was a
whale, and not a mackerel.
We do not find the mackerel's picture excepting at the fish dealers and
on the menu, and then only because the mackerel is good to eat.
Among trees the one that attains great proportions and beautiful
symmetry is yonder giant oak or elm that grows in the open. It needs
room to breathe and grow. It grows better if it is segregated from the
crowded forest. The giant tree is not the one that grows in the dense
forest.
There are two kinds of men, the kind that lives in the herd and the
kind that has strong individuality that needs room to grow. The herd
man exists in infinitely greater numbers than the individual man.
We cannot imagine Lincoln, Bismarck, Webster, Clay, Edison or Burbank
living in the herd, or spending their time in the boulevard cafes.
The man who lives in a herd, who is ever present where the lights are
bright, where gaiety abounds, where excitement reigns, where feasting
is present, soon gets himself into the habit of cultivating this
excitement. He is never happy when alone.
The brain never sleeps and something must occupy it. The herd man fills
his brain with frivolous things, he seeks constant excitement. He is
like the plant always in the sun, he burns himself out.
The great man with the individuality is great because he has always
spent plenty of tune by himself, sizing up things in solitude. Sizing
up things makes the brain grow and makes it stronger.
The universities of this country tend in a great measure to produce the
herd man. The students dress alike. All have the same mannerisms, all
have the same tilt to their hats, and all the same turned up trousers.
They feed at certain restaurants and crowd in flocks. Very few college
men learn the benefits of sizing up things in solitude until in after
years.
On the other hand the student in the school of practical experience
does not copy his fellow students. That is why in this great practical
experience school we find Lincolns, Edisons, Jim Hills and Carnegies.
Those men have to wrestle with the problems for themselves. They had to
size up things in solitude instead of reading the sizing up from text
books, as is done in the regular university.
Every man before retiring at night, or even during the day, should take
a few minutes to himself and carefully analyze the doings of the day.
He should weigh the positive and negative acts, the good and the bad,
the wise and the foolish, the right and the wrong impulses, the gain
and loss in achievement. He should strike a balance, and if he sees
that the bad, deterrent and backward things in the lead he should
resolve to get a move on himself.
The man who goes along without this sizing up things in solitude is
like the merchant who keeps no record, who pays his bills from the cash
drawer and takes what is left for profit. He will still be running a
little shop in twenty years, while his competitor who sized things up
each day will be in the wholesale business or will have retired with a
competency.
Try this sizing up things for two weeks, and the benefits you will
receive will be so manifest it will need no further suggestion to make
you keep up the practice.