Practice Your Troubles.
War has many a hint to give to peace.
The other day I was reading about the way the British gunners once devised for their target practice. They tried it off Gibraltar.
The target is shaped like a destroyer. Incandescent lights are strung all over it so as to disclose its outlines. These lights, however, are switched on and off by a wire running through the water, so that the target appears with startling suddenness, and then is lost at once in the darkness.
A boat is towing it, and therefore the target flashes out each time in a new and unexpected direction.
You can see that the test is a very severe one. The gunners have only a few seconds in which to take aim and fire; and if they can hit the target under such circumstances, they will be very formidable antagonists in actual battle.
Now that is precisely the way to prepare for the battle of life. Practice the troubles you may meet. Familiarize yourself with the difficulties that may confront you. Don't wait till the actual destroyer looms suddenly out of the night. There's no time for practice, then! Do your practicing on a target, towed by one of your own boats.
In other words, don't be on the lookout all the time for an easy life. Train yourself to obstacles. Grow wonted to difficulties. Do not shrink from attendance on the sick-bed or the death-bed. You must lie there yourself, some day. Welcome the many little temptations that every day is sure to bring, and use them as opportunities for drilling your gunners. Are you poor? obscure? a cripple? bedridden? lonely? slow of speech? slow of understanding? String electric lights along your target, bid it bob about all it pleases, and exult in the chance for increased skill in firing!
For this life is not the end, only the means.
We are not to get happiness out of it, but character; and what happiness comes as a by-the-way is so much clear gain. We are here to train ourselves for eternity.
Use the Spotlight!
"Getting into the limelight" is a synonym for offensive personal publicity. Frank Hinkey, coach of the Yale football team, believes in the practice, though only as applied to his favorite game.
By the use of the spotlight he brought his team up to a wonderful degree of proficiency in the forward pass. He drilled the eleven at night, in a big, darkened room. At one end was a powerful spotlight, at the other end a big board. The spot of light on the board was the target, corresponding to a player. It moved briskly about, as a player would move. As soon as it came to a halt, the player hurled the ball at it. His standing depended upon his accuracy in hitting the center. A stop-watch gave his speed. Thus the coach came to know with perfect thoroughness the skill of each player, or lack of skill, and could work him up to the requisite ability.
Something like this we all need, if we would succeed in the difficult game of life. We must not plunge into the conflict without practice, and practice under the exact conditions of the conflict, so far as we can reproduce them.
The successful speaker does not simply get up before his audience, open his mouth, and produce a fine oration. In his study he imagines the audience, over and over, and fires sentences and speeches at them.
The successful writer does not merely take a quire of paper, fill his fountain pen, and reel off a best seller. For years he is incessantly scribbling, trying his hand at short stories, poems, essays, all manner of themes and technique.
The successful musician does not just sit down at the piano, rumple up his hair, and dash off a magnificent "opus" without trouble. Days and weeks and years of laborious effort are spent in his solitary music-room, flinging notes at imaginary audiences.
Yes, if you would succeed at anything, use the spotlight! It is a one-sided affair. It lacks the snap and excitement and applause of the stadium. But it wins the game.
Mental Fire Drills.
A woman was in great danger in a fire. She became confused in saving her cherished possessions, and while she was trying to find them, her escape was cut off. The firemen rescued her, but the terrible experience taught her a lesson. Now she spends a few minutes frequently in thinking over what she would save in case of a fire, where each article is to be found, and in what order she will take them out. This mental fire drill gives her a strong feeling of self-reliance and safety. This is a good process to apply to spiritual emergencies. What shall I do the next time I am tempted to envy? How shall I meet the next cross word that assails me? How shall I bear myself when next I am treated unjustly? There is one who often provokes me; what shall I say the next time this happens? These mental fire drills count for more in the spiritual than in the material realm, for they concern our eternal possessions.