Will-Training.
It is of the utmost importance that the individual develop, cultivate,
and train his will so as to bring it under the influence of the higher
part of his mental and moral being. While the will is used most
effectively in developing and training the intellect and building
character, it itself must be trained by itself to habitually come under
the guidance of the intellect and under the influence of that which we
call character.
The influence of the trained will upon the several mental faculties is
most marked. There are no faculties which may not be cultivated by the
will. The first and great task of the will in this direction is the
control and direction of the attention. The will determines the kind of
interest that shall prevail at the moment, and the kind of interest
largely determines the character of the man, his tastes, his feelings,
his thoughts, his acts. Gordy says: "Coöperating with a pre-existing
influence, the will can make a weaker one prevail over a stronger. * * *
It determines which of pre-existing influences shall have control over
the mind."
Moreover, concentrated and continued attention depends entirely upon the
exercise of the will. As Gordy says: "If the will relaxes its hold upon
the activities of the mind, the attention is liable to be carried away
by any one of the thousands of ideas that the laws of association are
constantly bringing into our minds."
Even in the matter of mental images the will asserts its sway, and the
imagination may be trained to be the obedient servant of the developed
will. Regarding the influence of the will upon character, Davidson says:
"It is not enough for a man to understand correctly and love duly the
conditions of moral life in his own time; he must, still further, be
willing and able to fulfill these conditions. And he certainly cannot do
this unless his will is trained to perfect freedom, so that it responds,
with the utmost readiness, to the suggestions of his discriminating
intelligence and the movements of his chastened affections." Halleck
says: "We gradually make our characters by separate acts of will, just
as a blacksmith by repeated blows beats out a horseshoe or an anchor
from a shapeless mass of iron. A finished anchor or horseshoe was never
the product of a single blow."
TRAINING THE WILL.
Perhaps the best way to train the will is to _use_ it intelligently, and
with a purpose. The training of any faculty of the mind is at the same
time a training of the will. The attention being so closely allied to
the will, it follows that a careful training of attention will result in
a strengthening of the will. The training of the emotional side of one's
nature also brings results in the strengthening of the will.
Halleck gives his students excellent advice regarding the training of
the will. It would be hard to find anything better along these lines
than the following from his pen: "Nothing schools the will, and renders
it ready for effort in this complex world, better than accustoming it to
face disagreeable things. Professor James advises all to do something
occasionally for no other reason than that they would rather not do it,
if it is nothing more than giving up a seat in a street car. He likens
such effort to the insurance that a man pays on his house. He has
something that he can fall back on in time of trouble. A will schooled
in this way is always ready to respond, no matter how great the
emergency. While another would be crying over spilled milk, the
possessor of such a will has already found another cow. * * * The only
way to secure such a will is to practice doing disagreeable things.
There are daily opportunities. * * * A man who had declared his aversion
to what he deemed the dry facts of political economy was one day found
knitting his brow over a chapter of John Stuart Mill. When a friend
expressed surprise, the man replied: 'I am playing the schoolmaster with
myself. I am reading this because I dislike it.' Such a man has the
elements of success in him. * * * On the other hand, the one who
habitually avoids disagreeable action is training his will to be of no
use to him at a time when supreme effort is demanded. Such a will can
never elbow its way to the front in life."
HABITS.
Habits are the beaten track over which the will travels. The beaten path
of habit is the line of least resistance to the will. One who would
train his will must needs pay attention to providing it with the proper
mental paths over which to travel. The rule for the creation of habits
is simply this: _Travel over the mental path as often as possible_. The
rule for breaking undesirable habits is this: _Cultivate the opposite
habit_. In these two rules is expressed the gist of what has been
written on the subject.
Professor William James has left to the world some invaluable advice
regarding the cultivation of right habits. He bases his rules upon those
of Professor Bain, elaborates these, and adds some equally good ones. We
herewith quote freely from both James and Bain on this subject; it is
the best ever written regarding habit building.
I. "In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one,
launch yourself with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.
This will give your new beginning such a momentum that the temptation to
break down will not occur as soon as it otherwise might; and every day
during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the chances of it not
occurring at all."--_James._
II. "Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely
rooted in your life. Every lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of
string which one is carefully winding up--a single slip undoes more than
a great many turns will wind again."--_James._ "It is necessary, above
all things, in such a situation, never to lose a battle. Every gain on
the wrong side undoes the effect of many conquests on the right. The
essential precaution is so to regulate the two opposing powers that the
one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition has
fortified it to such a degree as to enable it to cope with the
opposition, under any circumstances."--_Bain._
III. "Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every
resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience
in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the
moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing _motor
effects_, that resolves and aspirations communicate their new 'set' to
the brain."--_James._ "The actual presence of the practical opportunity
alone furnishes the fulcrum upon which the lever can rest, by which the
moral will may multiply its strength and raise itself aloft. He who has
no solid ground to press against will never get beyond the stage of
empty gesture making."--_Bain._
IV. "Keep the faculty alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every
day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little, unnecessary
points; do every day something for no other reason than that you would
rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may
find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. * * * The man who
has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic
volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things will stand like a tower
when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow mortals are
winnowed like chaff in the blast."--_James._