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MOST OF THESE CHAPTERS are short, but highly
condensed. Think of this book as an all-you-can-eat buffet where
you pick and choose what you want for now. You can come back
again for more at some other time. It is impossible for you
to digest the contents of this book in one reading — there
is too much here. Please reread and remember that sentence.
It is important.
Since the chapters are in no particular
order, you can browse around the book until you find something
that sparks your interest and read that, leaving the rest until
later. Even if you read straight through the book, some chapters
will strike you as especially relevant — they’ll answer
a current need or situation in your life. When that happens,
copy the principle (stated at the end of each chapter) onto a
card and carry the card with you for a few days or weeks or even
months, concentrating on putting that principle into practice.
Then come back to the book and find another
principle or two to practice for a while. Don’t try to practice
too many at a time — one or two, maybe three at the most.
Or browse the book before you go to bed
each night to find a principle you want to practice the next
day. Write the principle on a card, and start practicing it first
thing in the morning.
Another good use for the book is to refer
to it when you’re down. When you feel stressed or frustrated
or worried or any negative emotion, leaf through the book looking
for a chapter that can help you with that.
As you read, keep a highlighter handy and
mark passages that have special meaning for you.
Reading this book once wouldn’t come
close to maximizing its value. If you read this book start to
finish this week, a year from now you will have forgotten almost
all of it. At that time you may be dealing with a troublemaker
at work, and even though pages 179-181 give you a good way to handle it,
a year from now those ideas are likely to have been buried in
a year’s worth of new information and memories, stashed
somewhere in the back of your mind, unavailable to you.
The things we learn are not etched
in stone. They are stored in a gooey organ. And you use that
organ — your brain — every day. New ideas and experiences
pass through your brain all the time, so what you know fades
and is less available to your working memory — except the
stuff you use repeatedly. That’s why I recommend referring
to this book when you’re down. It makes a difference. I
do it myself and I wrote the book! Insights can fade from our
awareness. They get crowded out by the urgencies of the day.
Use a principle enough times, and it will
become a permanent part of your character. But in the meantime,
refer to the book when you need it. And consult it when you want
to help your friends. This book was made to be used. So
let’s get to it.
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