| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: are men of genius only in the eyes of fools. If talent is to be
measured by youthful shyness, by that indefinable modesty which men
born to glory lose in the practice of their art, as a pretty woman
loses hers among the artifices of coquetry, then this unknown young
man might claim to be possessed of genuine merit. The habit of success
lessens doubt; and modesty, perhaps, is doubt.
Worn down with poverty and discouragement, and dismayed at this moment
by his own presumption, the young neophyte might not have dared to
enter the presence of the master to whom we owe our admirable portrait
of Henry IV., if chance had not thrown an unexpected assistance in his
way. An old man mounted the spiral stairway. The oddity of his dress,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: given up playing, and you've enough money to make it possible for
you to write your novel. The Centennial Company have asked you to
try a story of adventure for them, you've found one that is
splendid, you're just the man who could handle it, and now you've
got the money to make it possible. Condy," she exclaimed
suddenly, "don't you see your CHANCE? Aren't you a big enough man
to see your chance when it comes? And, besides, do you think I
would take MONEY from you? Can't you understand? If you don't take
this money that belongs to you, you would insult me. That is just
the way I would feel about it. You must see that. If you care
for me at all, you'll take it."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: and reminding them. I did so hate to do it, you know; it seemed a
pity to bother them, they had so much on their hands. Twice I
thought I would give up and let the thing go; so twice I started to
leave, but immediately I thought what a figure I should cut
stepping out amongst the redeemed in such a rig, and that made me
hang back and come to anchor again. People got to eying me -
clerks, you know - wondering why I didn't get under way. I
couldn't stand this long - it was too uncomfortable. So at last I
plucked up courage and tipped the head clerk a signal. He says -
"What! you here yet? What's wanting?"
Says I, in a low voice and very confidential, making a trumpet with
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