--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Success collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 5 number: 3 published: 1902-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Success, "Reinforce Yourself," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 3 (January 1902): 184.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0503unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0503unse start_page: 184 end_page: 184 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0503unse publication_year: 1902 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Reinforce Yourself REINFORCE YOURSELF. The great secret of success lies in one's ability to reinforce himself. We should be constantly on the watch for ways and means of supplementing ourselves, of increasing, in every way possible, our power of usefulness and worthy achievement. For example, every time we depart from truth, even in the slightest degree, every time we attempt to take advantage of another, to overreach by "smartness" or long-headedness, we deplete our moral strength, our power to do noble work. There is a deadly .reaction on every ignoble deed; it is a boomerang which ultimately kills the thrower. Most of us are constantly d'oing things which, though not actually wrong, tend to weaken, rather than to reinforce or strengthen us. Our great study should be, not to allow our ener- gies to run to waste through negative or harmful actions, but to reinforce ourselves continually by positive activity in the right direction. Success.