[00:01.08]Today I Begin a New Life
[00:03.82]Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long,
[00:09.39]suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.
[00:12.89]Today I am born anew and my birthplace
[00:16.50] is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.
[00:19.56]Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest
[00:23.45] and fullest vines in the vineyard,
[00:25.53]for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me,
[00:30.67]generation upon generation.
[00:33.30]Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily
[00:38.22] I will swallow the seed of success buried in each
[00:41.64]and new life will sprout within me.
[00:44.37]The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity
[00:48.09] yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those
[00:52.58]who have failed, were they piled one atop another,
[00:55.42]would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.
[00:59.25]Yet I will not fail, as the others,
[01:01.87] for in my hands I now hold the charts
[01:04.93]which will guide through perilous waters to shores
[01:07.67]which only yesterday seemed but a dream.
[01:10.95]As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits,
[01:16.64]as are all grown men. I will form good habits and become their slave.
[01:22.10]And how will I accomplish this difficult feat? Through these scrolls,
[01:26.70]it will be done, for each scroll contains a principle
[01:30.09]which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one
[01:34.68]which will bring me closer to success.
[01:36.87]And I make a solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life's growth.
[01:43.11] I will lose not a day from these readings
[01:46.39]for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it.
[01:51.53] I must not, I will not, break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and,
[01:57.22] in truth, the few moments spent each day on this new habit
[02:01.48]are but a small price to pay for the happiness and success that will be mine.
[02:06.84]Today my old skin has become as dust.
[02:10.55] I will walk tall among men and they will know me not,
[02:14.17]for today I am a new man, with a new life. |