Today I Begin a New Life
Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long,
suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.
Today I am born anew and my birthplace
is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.
Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest
and fullest vines in the vineyard,
for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me,
generation upon generation.
Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily
I will swallow the seed of success buried in each
and new life will sprout within me.
The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity
yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those
who have failed, were they piled one atop another,
would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.
Yet I will not fail, as the others,
for in my hands I now hold the charts
which will guide through perilous waters to shores
which only yesterday seemed but a dream.
As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits,
as are all grown men. I will form good habits and become their slave.
And how will I accomplish this difficult feat? Through these scrolls,
it will be done, for each scroll contains a principle
which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one
which will bring me closer to success.
And I make a solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life's growth.
I will lose not a day from these readings
for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it.
I must not, I will not, break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and,
in truth, the few moments spent each day on this new habit
are but a small price to pay for the happiness and success that will be mine.
Today my old skin has become as dust.
I will walk tall among men and they will know me not,
for today I am a new man, with a new life.