One may have spent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did
do something with it, however ill-advised that something may have
been. To do something else means a change of habits.

And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change,
even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and
discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven
hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still
live your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice,
and an immense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is
because I know the difficulty, it is because I know the almost
disastrous effect of failure in such an enterprise, that I earnestly
advise a very humble beginning. You must safeguard your self-
respect. Self-respect is at the root of all purposefulness, and a
failure in an enterprise deliberately planned deals a desperate
wound at one's self-respect. Hence I iterate and reiterate: Start
quietly, unostentatiously.

When you have conscientiously given seven hours and a half a week to
the cultivation of your vitality for three months--then you may
begin to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are
capable of doing.

Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have one
final suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to
allow much more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of
an hour and a half. Remember the chance of accidents. Remember
human nature. And give yourself, say, from 9 to 11.30 for your task
of ninety minutes.