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for anyone. Few have the will to undertake it, but Napoleon
moved with such energy that he never failed to carry the
war into the enemy s country. All other world-famous men
have been the possessors of wills that acted in the line of the
greatest resistance, with such seeming ease as if the action were
agreeable. The last quoted authority in speaking of the line
of greatest resistance uses the term in its application to the
ordinary man. Napoleon, however, had so mastered the feeling
side of himself that the doing of necessary disagreeable things
was not the line of the greatest resistance, but was along the
lines of the least resistance for habit and practice had worn
away the original resistance, and the doing of the necessary
thing, however disagreeable, was habitual.
Another method of training the Will along similar lines is
the practice of doing things now, instead of putting them off.
This is often a most disagreeable task, for the mind seemingly
prefers to procrastinate and defer the doing of uninteresting
or disagreeable tasks. It requires real Will to force oneself to
Do It Now in many cases. Training along these lines will result
in developing the capacity for immediate and decisive action
in critical moments. The exercise of voluntary attention upon
dry or uninteresting objects, as a matter of pure will-training,
is also useful. Anyone can devote attention to an interesting
thing, but it takes a strong will to place and hold the attention
upon an uninteresting one. Voluntary attention is a far more
rare faculty than people think. There are but few people who
can deliberately fasten the attention upon some dry subject,
and then hold it there by force of Will. And yet such a quality
is a requisite for the man who would do things in the world.
The men who step out of the ranks and move a pace ahead, are
generally those who have acquired this faculty, and who do the
disagreeable and uninteresting things, while the majority of the
race are amusing themselves with their interesting toys.
One may render easier the doing of the tasks set for him by
his reason by using the imagination in the direction of setting up
How to Develop Volition