Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-21
VIGOR AND ACHIEVEMENT
BY H. ARLINGTON BRUCE

Vt is something more than coincidence
that most men who win an outstanding
success in their business or professional
work are above the average in physical
yigor.
They may be tall men or they may be
short they may be thin or they may incline
to stoutness, but nearly always you will find
that they are uncommonly healthy. And it
is certain that to this gift acquisition of
health their success is in some measure dye.
I say gift or acquisition because it is a
fact that in many instances men exceptional
ly vigorous in middle life were ftail in their
earlier years But like Theodore Roosevelt,
a conspicuous example of this type, they
made it point to develop themselves phys
ically through exercise and other upbuildng
measures.
They had their reward in an excess of
vigor and in what may justly be described as
an excess of the mental and moral accom-
plishments of vigor.
That is to say, as they became more Wig
orOus they found it easier to apply them
selves to the tasks and problems of the
business or profession in which they were
engaged. They could think harder with
less fatigue than formerly, also they could
think much more alertly and clearly.
And, thanks to the INCREASED sense Of or
Sanic well-being which their greater vigor
brought, they unconsciously got bias to-
ward determination, cheerfulness, courage
and self-confdence. In the words of a men
tO-physicist:
THAT little surplus Of physical force
which accompanies robust health makes all
the difference between the courage and as
surance necessary for doing great things and
the tlmidity and uncertainty and weak in
itiative which handicap the physically weak
There is a great difference between that
eagerness for activity, that longing to do
things, which accompanies robust vitality
and the forced, Indifferent, uncertain effort
which is inseparable from physical weak
ness"
Vigoe, too makes for greater personal
magnetism, that quality which in almost all
callings counts strongly toward success, if
only because in almost all callings success
depends to a large extent on thu goodwill of
other people, The vigorous, by their cheer
fulness and eXpansiveness, influence favor
ably those with whom they come into con-
tact, and thereby find their path to success
daily made smoother.
Though, to be sure, success is by no
means impossible to people deficient in yigor.
To suggest that it is, would be absurd in
the face of facts of everyday observation.
Some exceedingly successful men have been
in i'll health all their days
But this does not affect the principle that
success is won more readily by the vigorous
than by the physically weak. And young
men eager to win success will indeed do we'll
to keep this principle steadily in mind
On the one hand, if conscious that they
are somewhat lacking in vigor they should
spare pains to make themselves more Wig
orous. And on the other having been I'M
usually blessed with vigor by nature, they
should see to it that they do not, by dissipa-
ton and unhygienic practices, toss natures
gift away.
AS their energy wanes, so will their pros
poets of success grow fainter, a fact which
everyday observation again bears out i'm
pressiYely.
Copyright, 1929