matter how good one's _sentiments_ may be, if one has not taken
advantage of every concrete opportunity to _act_, one's character may
remain entirely unaffected for the better." Particularly at time of
emotional excitement one makes resolves that are very good, and a glow
of fine feeling is present. Beware that these resolves do not evaporate
in mere feeling. They should be crystallized in some form of action as
soon as possible. "Let the expression be the least thing in the
world--speaking genially to one's grandmother, or giving up one's seat
in a ... car, if nothing more heroic offers--but let it not fail to take
place." Strictly speaking you have not really completed a resolve until
you have acted upon it. You may determine to go without lunch, but you
have not consummated that resolve until you have permitted it to
express itself by carrying you past the door of the dining-room. That
is the crucial test which determines the strength of your resolve. Many
repetitions will be required before a pathway is worn deep enough to be
settled. Seize the very earliest opportunity to begin grooving it out,
and seize every other opportunity for deepening it.

After this view of the place in your life occupied by habit, you
readily see its far-reaching possibilities for welfare of body and
mind. Its most obvious, because most annoying, effects are on the side
of its disadvantages. Bad habits secure a grip upon us that we are
sometimes powerless to shake off. True, this ineradicableness need have
no terrors if we have formed good habits. Indeed, as will be pointed
out in the next paragraph, habit may be a great asset. Nevertheless, it
may work positive harm, or at best, may lead to stagnation. The
fixedness of habit tends to make us move in ruts unless we exert
continuous effort to learn new things. If we permit ourselves to move
in old grooves we cease to progress and become "old fogy."