In addition to self-awareness, imagination, and conscience, it is the fourth quality — independent will — that really makes effective self-management possible. It is the ability to make decisions and choices and to act in agreement with them. It is the ability to act rather than to be acted upon, to actively carry out the program we have developed through the other three qualities.
The human will is an amazing thing. Time after time, it has overcome unbelievable difficulties. The Helen Kellers of this world give dramatic(给人深刻印象的) evidence to the value, the power of the independent will.
But as we examine this quality in the context of effective self-management, we realize it’s usually not the dramatic, the visible, the once-in-a-life time, up-by-the-bootstraps(自立自强的) effort that brings lasting success.
