How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day
阿诺德.本涅特 Arnold Bennett
VI REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE
I have incidentally mentioned the vast expanse of forty-four hours betweenleaving business at 2 p.m. on Saturday and returning to business at 10 a.m.on Monday. And here I must touch on the point whether the week shouldconsist of six days or of seven. For many years--in fact, until I was approachingforty--my own week consisted of seven days. I was constantly being informedby older and wiser people that more work, more genuine living, could be gotout of six days than out of seven.
But in the average case I should say: Confine your formal programme(super-programme, I mean) to six days a week. If you find yourselfwishing to extend it, extend it, but only in proportion to your wish; andcount the time extra as a windfall, not as regular income, so that you canreturn to a six-day programme without the sensation of being poorer, ofbeing a backslider.
Let us now see where we stand. So far we have marked for savingout of the waste of days, half an hour at least on six mornings aweek, and one hour and a half on three evenings a week. Total,seven hours and a half a week.
I propose to be content with that seven hours and a half for thepresent. "What?" you cry. "You pretend to show us how to live,and you only deal with seven hours and a half out of a hundredand sixty-eight! Are you going to perform a miracle with yourseven hours and a half?" Well, not to mince the matter, I am--ifyou will kindly let me! That is to say, I am going to ask you toattempt an experience which, while perfectly natural and explicable,has all the air of a miracle. My contention is that the full use of thoseseven-and-a-half hours will quicken the whole life of the week, addzest to it, and increase the interest which you feel in even the mostbanal occupations. You practise physical exercises for a mere tenminutes morning and evening, and yet you are not astonished whenyour physical health and strength are beneficially affected every hourof the day, and your whole physical outlook changed. Why shouldyou be astonished that an average of over an hour a day given to themind should permanently and completely enliven the whole activityof the mind?
More time might assuredly be given to the cultivation of one's self.And in proportion as the time was longer the results would be greater.But I prefer to begin with what looks like a trifling effort.
while perfectly natural and explicable,has all the air of .
It is not really a trifling effort, as those will discover who have yetto essay it. To "clear" even seven hours and a half from the jungle ispassably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. One may havespent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did do somethingwith it, however ill-advised that something may have been. To dosomething else means a change of habits.
And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, evena change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks anddiscomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote sevenhours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still liveyour old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and animmense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is because I knowthe difficulty, it is because I know the almost disastrous effect of failurein such an enterprise, that I earnestly advise a very humble beginning.You must safeguard your self-respect. Self-respect is at the root of allpurposefulness, and a failure in an enterprise deliberately planned dealsa 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 weekto the cultivation of your vitality for three months--then you maybegin to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you arecapable of doing.
Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have onefinal suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to allowmuch more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of an hourand 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.