Don't Wait, Begin Right Now, Says Dr. Frank Crane, July 1, 1922

Where to Take Hold

By Dr. Frank Crane

The place to take hold is here.

Right here.

And the time to begin is now.

Right now.

If you don’t know how to go at it right, go at it wrong, but go at it.

All the worth while things of this life are difficult. Nothing’s easy but clumping (slumping?)

Most of the problems that affect your happiness are complicated.

And the way to perform a difficult and complicated task is to go to it somehow.

For you learn by trying.

Life is an art, not a science. It is mastered by experiment, and patience, and infinite beginning again. Nobody in the world can learn just what to do before he does it; Is mean in the way of living and getting along.

If you have to see a man, and dread the interview, because he is an impossible fellow and will make things as hard for you as he can, go right away and get it over with.

If your desk is cluttered with a dozen half-finished matters, clean it up now. Decide. Act.

If you owe money, pay it. If you cannot pay it, make the best arrangements you can with your creditor now. Don’t evade and equivocate. Don’t dawdle.

If you have a bad habit that is throttling you, take hold now. You must conquer it some time, and every day you delay your fight your enemy grows stronger.

If you want to save money and get a little ahead, put a portion of what you have now in the savings bank. Nothing if finished that was never begun.

If you are not helpful with a dollar only in your pocket, you would not be if you had a million.

Do it now.

What you are going to do some day may be a sickly dream. It’s what you do today that means something.

The only theory that is of any value is the one that gets into your fingers right now.

The only creed that will save your soul is the one that flushes your heart and thought and speech and deed now.

The place to take hold is here!

From the front page of The News Reporter, Littleton, July 1, 1922. Dr. Frank Crane (1861-1928) was an advice columnist, Presbyterian minister, and author of several volumes of essays. You can read more of his work online at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Frank_Crane.