What is the royal road to self-control?

Conceive a legitimate purpose in your heart and set out to accomplish it.

Make this purpose the centralising point of your thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal or it may be a worldly object, but whichever it is, steadily focus your thought upon the object, which you have set before you.

Make this purpose your supreme duty and devote yourself to its attainment. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.

Even if you fail again and again to accomplish your purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of your true success and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

James Allen, As a Man Thinketh, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1913, Chapter Four, Thought and Purpose, 31