in college.

Every well-ordered household ought to protect the time of those who
desire to study at home. At a fixed hour every evening during the long
winter there should be by common consent a quiet period for mental
concentration, for what is worth while in mental discipline, a quiet
hour uninterrupted by time-thief callers.

In thousands of homes where the members are devoted to each other, and
should encourage and help each other along, it is made almost
impossible for anyone to take up reading, studying, or any exercise for
self-improvement. Perhaps someone is thoughtless and keeps
interrupting the others so that they can not concentrate their minds;
or those who have nothing in common with your aims or your earnest life
drop in to spend an evening in idle chatter. They have no ideals
outside of the bread-and-butter and amusement questions, and do not
realize how they are hindering you.

There is constant temptation to waste one's evenings and it takes a
stout ambition and a firm resolution to separate oneself from a jolly,
fun-loving, and congenial family circle, or happy-hearted youthful
callers, in order to try to rise above the common herd of unambitious
persons who are content to slide along, totally ignorant of everything
but the requirements of their particular vocations.

A habit of forcing yourself to fix your mind steadfastly and
systematically upon certain studies, even if only for periods of a few
minutes at a time, is, of itself, of the greatest value. This habit
helps one to utilize the odds and ends of time which are unavailable to
most people because they have never been trained to concentrate the
mind at regular intervals.

A good understanding of the possibilities that live in spare moments is
a great success asset.

The very reputation of always trying to improve yourself, of seizing
every opportunity to fit yourself for something better, the reputation
of being dead-in-earnest, determined to be somebody and to do something
in the world, would be of untold assistance to you. People like to
help those who are trying to help themselves. They will throw
opportunities in their way. Such a reputation is the best kind of
capital to start with.

One trouble with people who are smarting under the consciousness of
deficient education is that they do not realize the immense value of
utilizing spare minutes. Like many boys who will not save their
pennies and small change because they can