1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:07,360 Speaker 1: Mental second wind. Are you an unusually persevering and persistent person, or, 2 00:00:07,559 --> 00:00:10,640 like most of us, do you sometimes find it difficult 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,960 to stick to the job until it is done. What 4 00:00:14,119 --> 00:00:17,640 is your usual experience in this respect? Is it not 5 00:00:17,839 --> 00:00:21,440 this that you work steadily along until all of a 6 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:25,320 sudden you become conscious of a feeling of weariness, crying 7 00:00:25,519 --> 00:00:28,559 enough for the time being, and then you yield to 8 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:33,280 the impulse to stop. Assuming that this is what generally happens, 9 00:00:33,719 --> 00:00:37,840 does this feeling of fatigue, this impulse to rest, mean 10 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:41,719 that your mental energy is exhausted. Suppose that, by a 11 00:00:41,759 --> 00:00:45,280 determined effort of the will, you force your lagging brain 12 00:00:45,399 --> 00:00:48,920 to take up the thread of work. There will invariably 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,359 come a new supply of energy, a second wind, enabling 14 00:00:53,399 --> 00:00:56,880 you to forge ahead with a freshness and vigor that 15 00:00:57,039 --> 00:01:01,200 is surprising after the previous lassitude. Nor is this all 16 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,120 the same? Process may be repeated a second time and 17 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,400 a third time, each new effort of the will being 18 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:12,040 followed by a renewal of energy. Many a man will 19 00:01:12,079 --> 00:01:14,640 tell you that he does his best work in the 20 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,920 wee watches of the morning, after tedious hours of persevering 21 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,599 but fruitless effort. Instead, of being exhausted by its long 22 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,799 hours a persistent endeavor, the mind seems now to rise 23 00:01:27,879 --> 00:01:32,239 to the acme of its power to achieve its supreme accomplishments. 24 00:01:32,879 --> 00:01:37,640 Difficulties melt into thin air, Profound problems find easy solution, 25 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:44,079 flights of genius manifest themselves. Yet long before midnight, such 26 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:47,959 a one had perhaps felt himself yield to fatigue, and 27 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,000 had tied a wet towel around his head, or had 28 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,000 taken stimulants to keep himself awake. The existence of this 29 00:01:55,159 --> 00:01:59,400 reserved supply of energy is manifested and physical as well 30 00:01:59,439 --> 00:02:02,680 as mental effort. Men who work with their heads and 31 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,680 men who work with their hands, Scholars and marathon runners 32 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,439 must alike testify to the existence of reserve supplies of 33 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,719 power not ordinarily drawn upon. If we do not always 34 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,080 or habitually utilize this reserve power, it is simply because 35 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,360 we have accustomed ourselves to yield at once to the 36 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:27,479 first strong feeling of fatigue. Evidence of this same fact 37 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,080 appears in our feelings on different days. How often does 38 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,120 a man get up from his breakfast table after a 39 00:02:34,199 --> 00:02:38,719 long night's rest, when he should be feeling fresh and invigorated, 40 00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:42,360 and say to himself, I don't feel like working to day, 41 00:02:43,199 --> 00:02:45,639 and it may take him until afternoon to get his 42 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:49,560 work a day's stride, if indeed he reaches it at all. 43 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,280 You cannot, yourself be immune from the feeling on certain 44 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:57,360 days that you are not your best. Somehow or other, 45 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:02,439 your wits seem be fogged, visitate to undertake important interviews, 46 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,360 your interest lags, and though crises arise in your business, 47 00:03:08,039 --> 00:03:11,360 you feel weighted down and unable to meet them with 48 00:03:11,439 --> 00:03:15,560 that shrewd discernment and decisiveness of action of which you 49 00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:19,759 know yourself capable. But you realize in your inmost self 50 00:03:20,159 --> 00:03:23,680 that if you continue to exert the will and persistently 51 00:03:23,719 --> 00:03:27,319 hold yourself to the business in hand, sooner or later 52 00:03:27,439 --> 00:03:31,240 you will warm to the work. Enthusiasm will come, the 53 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,639 clouds will be dispelled, the husks will fly. Yet you 54 00:03:35,719 --> 00:03:39,960 have had no rest. On the contrary, you have, by 55 00:03:40,039 --> 00:03:45,800 continued conscious effort, consumed more and more of your vital energy. Obviously, 56 00:03:46,039 --> 00:03:49,520 it was not rest that you needed. What you required 57 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,120 was the impulse of some strong desire that should carry 58 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:56,280 you over the threshold of that first inertia and to 59 00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:00,439 the wide field of reserve energy. So rarely called pawn 60 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,280 and so rich in power. Under the lashings of necessity 61 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:08,560 or the spur of love or ambition, men accomplished feats 62 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,759 of mental and physical endurance of which they would have 63 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:16,480 supposed themselves incapable. Here is what a certain lawyer says 64 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,480 of his early struggles. When I was twenty three years old, 65 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,279 married and with a family to support, I entered the 66 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:28,319 law course of a great university. Of the many students 67 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,680 in my class, seven including me, were making a living 68 00:04:32,759 --> 00:04:37,000 while studying law. By special arrangement, I was relieved from 69 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,439 attendance at lectures and simply required to pass examinations on 70 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,199 the various subjects, and was thus enabled to retain my 71 00:04:45,319 --> 00:04:49,720 place as principal of a large public school. During the 72 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,480 third and last year of my law course, I was 73 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:56,040 principal of a public school of two thousand children and 74 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:00,639 an alternate night school with an enrollment of seven hundred fifty, 75 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,399 and I worked at the law three nights in the 76 00:05:03,439 --> 00:05:07,199 week and all day Sunday. After eight months of this, 77 00:05:07,399 --> 00:05:11,680 the final examinations came around. They consumed a full week 78 00:05:12,079 --> 00:05:14,920 from nine in the morning until five or six at night. 79 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,920 I had no opportunity for review, so I rented a 80 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,560 room near the law school to save the time going 81 00:05:21,639 --> 00:05:25,040 and coming, and reviewed each night the subjects of examination 82 00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:28,480 for the following day. I did not sleep more than 83 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,480 two hours any night in that week. On Thursday, while 84 00:05:32,519 --> 00:05:35,839 bolting a bit of a luncheon, a fishbone stuck in 85 00:05:35,879 --> 00:05:39,680 my throat. Fearful of losing the result of my year's effort, 86 00:05:40,079 --> 00:05:43,839 I returned to my work, suffering much pain, and kept 87 00:05:43,879 --> 00:05:47,600 at it until Saturday night, when the examinations were concluded. 88 00:05:48,399 --> 00:05:51,639 The next day, the surgeon who removed the fishbone said 89 00:05:51,639 --> 00:05:53,920 there was no reason why I should have not had 90 00:05:54,319 --> 00:05:57,720 a bad case of gangrene. When I look back on 91 00:05:57,759 --> 00:06:00,560 that year's work, I don't see how I stood it. 92 00:06:01,319 --> 00:06:04,439 I don't see how I kept myself at it day 93 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:09,560 in day out, month after month, without rest, recreation, or relief. 94 00:06:10,399 --> 00:06:12,480 I am sure I could never go through it again, 95 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,279 even if I had the courage to undertake it. I 96 00:06:16,399 --> 00:06:19,279 ranked second in a class of one hundred and eighty 97 00:06:19,519 --> 00:06:23,199 in my law examinations, won the second prize for the 98 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:29,399 best graduating thesis, received a complimentary vote for class oratorship, and, 99 00:06:29,519 --> 00:06:33,240 much to my surprise, was soon after offered an assistant 100 00:06:33,319 --> 00:06:37,839 superintendency of the public schools by the school board, who 101 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,839 knew nothing of my studies and thought my work as 102 00:06:40,879 --> 00:06:44,720 a teacher worthy of promotion. It was not only the 103 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,920 hardest year's work, but the best year's work I ever did. 104 00:06:48,439 --> 00:06:52,720 It exemplifies my invariable experience that the more we want 105 00:06:52,759 --> 00:06:55,600 to do, the more we can do, and the better 106 00:06:55,639 --> 00:06:59,079 we can do it. The following is an extract from 107 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,839 a letter quoted by Professor James, as written by Colonel 108 00:07:02,839 --> 00:07:06,879 Baird Smith after the Siege of Delhi in eighteen fifty seven, 109 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:11,360 to the success of which he largely contributed. My poor 110 00:07:11,399 --> 00:07:14,480 wife had some reason to think that war and disease 111 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,160 between them had left very little of a husband to 112 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,879 take under nursing when she got him again. An attack 113 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,600 of scurvy had filled my mouth with sores, shaken every 114 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:28,720 joint in my body, and covered me all over with 115 00:07:28,879 --> 00:07:32,680 scars and livid spots, so that I was unlovely to 116 00:07:32,759 --> 00:07:36,560 look upon a smart knock on the ankle, joined from 117 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:39,480 the splinter of a shell that burst in my face 118 00:07:39,879 --> 00:07:42,920 in itself, a mere bagtelle of a wound had been 119 00:07:42,959 --> 00:07:47,519 of necessity neglected under the pressing and insistent calls upon 120 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,920 me and had grown worse and worse, until the whole 121 00:07:50,959 --> 00:07:54,480 foot below the ankle became a black mass and seemed 122 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:59,319 to threaten mortification. I insisted, however, on being allowed to 123 00:07:59,439 --> 00:08:03,000 use it until the place was taken mortification or no, 124 00:08:03,399 --> 00:08:06,600 And though the pain was sometimes horrible, I carried my 125 00:08:06,759 --> 00:08:10,040 point and kept up to the last. On the day 126 00:08:10,079 --> 00:08:13,399 after the assault, I had an unlucky fall on some 127 00:08:13,519 --> 00:08:16,680 bad ground, and it was an open question for a 128 00:08:16,759 --> 00:08:19,639 day or two whether I hadn't broken my arm at 129 00:08:19,639 --> 00:08:23,319 the elbow. Fortunately it turned out to be only a 130 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,839 severe sprain, but I am still conscious of the wretch 131 00:08:26,879 --> 00:08:30,680 it gave me. To crown the whole pleasant catalog. I 132 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:34,240 was worn to a shadow by a constant diarrhea and 133 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,600 consumed as much opium as would have done credit to 134 00:08:37,639 --> 00:08:41,559 my father in law, Thomas de Quincey. However, thank God, 135 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:44,720 I have a good share of tapolism in me and 136 00:08:44,799 --> 00:08:49,000 come out strong under difficulties. I think I may confidently 137 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:51,639 say that no man ever saw me out of heart, 138 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,159 or ever heard a complaining word from me, Even when 139 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,840 our prospects were gloomiest. We were sadly crippled by cholora, 140 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:03,039 and it was almost appalling to me to find out 141 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,039 of twenty five officers I could only muster fifteen for 142 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,399 the operations of the attack. However, it was done, and 143 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:15,840 after it was done came the collapse. Don't be horrified 144 00:09:15,879 --> 00:09:18,320 when I tell you that, for the whole of the 145 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,039 actual siege, and in truth, for some little time before, 146 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,840 I almost lived on brandy. Appetite for food, I had none, 147 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:31,279 and I forced myself to eat just sufficient to sustain life. 148 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,159 And I had an incessant craving for Brandy as the 149 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:39,279 strongest stimulant I could get. Strange to say, I was 150 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:43,000 quite unconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree. 151 00:09:43,759 --> 00:09:46,559 The excitement of the work was so great that no 152 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:49,919 lesser one seemed to have any chance against it. And 153 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,840 I certainly never found my intellect clearer or my nerves 154 00:09:53,879 --> 00:09:58,600 stronger in my life. Such is the profound resourcefulness and 155 00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:01,320 enduring power of a human mind.