Team Alpha 375

	Living Your Own Life May Take Some “House Cleaning” by Napoleon Hill By the time we reach adulthood, most of us have acquired a good deal of clutter in our lives. As you begin to know yourself and know the image of the life you want to build, you will recognize this clutter. Throw it out! You might begin by discarding some of those acquaintances who waste your time, interfere with your efforts and try to manage you. Clear them out! You need not turn them into enemies, but when you want to be yourself you will find ways to avoid any person who tries to deny you the inalienable right of being yourself. There is also the self-made clutter which results from not having a clear idea of how you wish to use each day. Make up a time budget. Allot your time in favor of the “musts” which apply to anyone who wants to live his own life profitable and pleasantly. Eight hours a day is a good allotment for sleep and for rest. Eight hours a day is a good allotment for work at your business or profession; but as your pattern of life-success grows stronger, probably your hours of work will grow less. The remaining eight hours are particularly precious. You should divide them into various periods, each of which will be devoted to something you wish to do, not something you have to do. What do you wish to do? Stop now and think. Make a list, such as: Play, Social Life, Reading, Writing, Playing a Musical Instrument, Extending Your Knowledge in some field that has nothing to do with your making a living, Tending Your Garden, Building Gadgets in Your Home Workshop, Hiking, Boating, and “Just Sitting” and watching the clouds or the stars… I repeat, those remaining eight hours are particularly precious. They are YOUR FREE TIME in which you may live your own life precisely as you wish to live it. You may find this takes some courage. You may have acquired and exaggerate sense of duty toward others (often a pretty description for plain meddling). You may too well remember being told in childhood such nonsense as “the devil finds work for idle hands.” But then, it takes courage to be one’s self and avoid the pressures to be like other people and let them live your life for you.