Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you in part by Book of Zen, makers of inspirational fashion and gift ideas. Visit them online at BookofZen.com. Today’s podcast has been edited and adapted from Keys to Success by B.C. Forbes, published in 1918.

Nobody can hand you a ready-made key to open the door of success. You must fashion your own key and find the combination of the lock for yourself.

No magician can waft you to the heights of fortune and fame. You cannot fly there on the wings of an airplane.

The road, often rocky, has to be traversed on foot.  You, and you alone, can supply the motive power. You, and you alone, must put forth the necessary exertion. No one can remove from your shoulders the burden of the effort. You must do your own climbing.

Nor are there any mystic short-cuts. The full distance must be honestly, even painstakingly traveled.

While there are no escalators to the hilltop of success, and while every man and woman must do his and her own climbing, yet there is a right road to travel, and it all depends on you.

Your success depends upon you.

Your happiness depends upon you.

You have to steer your own course. You have to shape your own fortune.

You have to educate yourself. You have to do your own thinking.

You have to live with your own conscience. Your mind is yours and can be used only by you.

You come into the world alone. You go to the grave alone. You are alone with your inner thoughts during the journey in between.

You must make your own decisions. You must abide by the consequences of your acts.

You alone can regulate your habits and make or unmake your health.

You alone can assimilate things mental and things material. You have to do your own assimilation all through life.

You may be taught by a teacher, but you have to imbibe the knowledge. Your teacher cannot transfuse it into your brain.

You alone can control your mind cells and your brain cells.

You may have spread before you the wisdom of the ages, but unless you assimilate it, you derive no benefit from it; no one can force it into your cranium.

You alone can move your own legs.  You alone can use your own arms. You alone can utilize your own hands. You alone can control your own muscles.

You must stand on your feet, physically and metaphorically. You must take your own steps.

Your parents cannot enter into your skin, take control of your mental and physical machinery, and make something of you.

You cannot fight your son’s or your daughter’s battles; that they must do for themselves.

You have to be captain of your own destiny.

You have to see through your own eyes. You have to use your own ears. You have to master your own faculties.

You have to solve your own problems.

You have to form your own ideals.

You have to create your own ideas.

You must choose your own speech. You must govern your own tongue.

Your real life is your thoughts. Your thoughts are of your own making.

Read The Entire Essay in Evergreen: 50 Inspirational Life Lessons

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