“Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.”
– James Naismith
I love the reaction I get from people and groups when I talk of success principles and I come to the one on being clean. People look at you with that Eliza Doolittle expression that says “I washed my face and hands before I come, I did.” Where the whole issue of personal hygiene is very important and one that should not be taken for granted, it is not what I wish to look at here. Right now I would like for us to think about being clean on the inside. It does the Success-Minded Person no good to be clean and fresh on the outside and your heart and mind be filled with filth and decay.
DAILY HABITS
In my upcoming book 12 Fundamentals for Successful Living, I define the quality of cleanliness this way: “A Success-Minded Person keeps clean in body, thought, stands for clean speech, clean sports, clean habits, and travels with a clean crowd. They are aware of what they watch, read and listen to at all times.” Success-Minded People know that you must deliberately work at keeping themselves clean. In a world filled with filth and corruption it is your daily habits that will determine the level of inner cleanliness you have.
MAKE THE WORLD CLEANER
Success-Minded People also know that it is no good to see the world around you as hopelessly dirty and therefore remove yourself from it. It is up to us to be a cleansing agent in the world we live in. By seeing to it that we practice clean speech, clean habits and not allow unclean thing to conquer our hearing and vision we make the world a bit better. J.W. von Goethe said “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the world will be clean.” If we take care to keep our self clean, each one of us, then the world will be better.
CLEAN LIVING WINS EVERY TIME
Look at the life of an athlete. Those who do not work at keeping their mind as fit as their body, will in the end come to failure and defeat. We see it all the time. No matter what society or culture tell us, fact remains that good morals and clean habits win every time they are tried. Likewise, bad morals and bad habits bring failure every time. Cycling champion Major Taylor said “An athlete must have ability to reach the top, but many who have ability and who do not live clean lives never have and never will be champions for obvious reasons.”
DON’T BE A DEAD FISH
Success-Minded People make clean living a life style and do not see it as an inconvenience or problem. Yes it takes work to do what is right and good, but so what. The late Corrie ten Boom use to say, “Any dead fish can float down stream.” You do not need backbone or strength to follow the crowd. You don’t even need to think, you just go with what is happening around you. I cannot imagine a duller life than that. Success-Minded People set their own path and live their own life. Do they make mistakes? Sure they do but they know the reality of 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It is good to feel clean.
© 2011 John Patrick Hickey
