THE SCROLL MARKED I

Today I begin a new life. Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, sufferred the bruises
of failure and the wounds of mediocrity. Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard
where there is fruit for all. Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest
vines in the vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come
before me, generation upon generation. Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines
and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me.
The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair
and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast its
shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth. Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my
hands I now hold the charts which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only
yesterday seemed but a dream. Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature
made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life
to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I accepted
pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which will guide me out of
the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most
extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem no more
than my just reward. Time teaches all things to he who lives forever but I have not the luxury
of eternity. Yet, within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never
in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old
in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the
greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of salesmen. And how will this be
accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge nor the experience to achieve greatness and
already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I
will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge
or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge
and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated,
usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly. In truth experience teaches thoroughly
yet her course of instruction devours men’s years so the value of her lessons diminishes with
the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men.
Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will
be unworkable and impractical tomorrow. Only principles endure and these I now possess, for
the laws that will lead me to greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls. What they
will teach me is more to prevent failure than to gain success, for what is success other than a
state of mind? Which two, among a thousand wise men, will define success in the same words;
yet failure is always described but one way. Failure is man’s inability to reach his goals in life,
whatever they may be. In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those
who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success.
Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all
others is—I will form good habits and become their slaves. As a child I was slave to my
impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men. I have surrendered my free will
to the years of accumulated habits and the past deeds of my life have already marked out a path
which threatens to imprison my future. My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice,
greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit Therefore, if I must
be a slave to habit let me be a slave to good habits. My bad habits must be destroyed and new
furrows prepared for good seed. I will form good habits and become their slave. And how will
I accomplish this difficult feat? Through these scrolls, it will be done, for each scroll contains
a principle which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one which will bring
me closer to success. For it is another of nature’s laws that only a habit can subdue another
habit. So, in order for these written words to perform their chosen task, I must discipline myself
with the first of my new habits which is as follows:
I will read each scroll for thirty days in this prescribed manner, before I proceed to the next
scroll. First, I will read the words in silence when I arise. Then, I will read the words in silence
after I have partaken of my midday meal. Last, I will read the words again just before I retire
at day’s end, and most important, on this occasion I will read the words aloud. On the next day
I will repeat this procedure, and I will continue in like manner for thirty days. Then, I will turn
to the next scroll and repeat this procedure for another thirty days. I will continue in this manner
until I have lived with each scroll for thirty days and my reading has become habit. And what
will be accomplished with this habit? Herein lies the hidden secret of man’s accomplishments.
As I repeat the words daily, they will soon become a part of my active mind, but more
important, they will also seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps,
which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend. As the words
of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning,
with a vitality I have never known before. My vigour will increase, my enthusiasm will rise,
my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be
happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow. Eventually I
will find myself reacting to all situations which confront me as I was commanded in the scrolls
to react, and soon these actions and reactions will become easy to perform, for any act with
practice becomes easy. Thus, a new and good habit is born, for when an act becomes easy
through constant repetition it becomes a pleasure to perform and if it is a pleasure to perform
it is man’s nature to perform it often. When I perform it often it becomes a habit and I become
its slave and since it is a good habit this is my will. Today I begin a new life. And I make a
solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life’s growth. I will lose not a day from
these readings for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it. I must not, I
will not, break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and, in truth, the few moments
spent each day on this new habit are but a small price to pay for the happiness and success that
will
be mine. As I read and re-read the words in the scrolls to follow, never will I allow the brevity
of each scroll nor the simplicity of its words to cause me to treat the scroll’s message lightly.
Thousands of grapes are pressed to fill one jar with wine, and the grape skin and pulp are tossed
to the birds. So, it is with these grapes of wisdom from the ages. Much has been filtered and
tossed to the wind. Only the pure truth lies distilled in the words to come. I will drink as
instructed and spill not a drop. And the seed of success I will swallow. Today my old skin has
become as dust. I will walk tall among men and they will know me not, for today I am a new
man, with a new life. Now, before you continue, go back and read the scroll again. It contains
one key sentence that I want you to underline: “As I repeat the words daily, they will soon
become a part of my active mind, but more important, they will also seep into my other mind,
that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act
in ways I do not comprehend.” In modern terminology what that key sentence means is that
you are about to mind-condition yourself. You are about to begin the process of imprinting new
relays and transistors onto your subconscious mind … that “control box” which mysteriously
directs many of our actions and our ambitions. There’s nothing weird or “far-out” about this
technique. Many of the nation’s outstanding examples of success constantly “program”
themselves so that they instinctively react to various situations in a manner that will provide
them with the greatest possible benefit. W. Clement Stone, Chairman of the Combined
Insurance Company of America, and the country’s outstanding expert on the motivation of
others, used this technique on himself to amass a personal and self-made fortune of more than
$400,000,000. Perhaps your goal is not that high … but let’s make a run for it, anyway.
Halt 25th OCTOBER 2021 >>>>>LORD VASCO