Chapter VIII

HOW TO USE THE PERIODS OF THE CYCLES
N THE foregoing chapters, two distinct cycles have been outlined. Cycle number two, explained in chapter six, relates to your own personal existence, and explains what tendencies and conditions will be fortunate or unfortunate for you during each of the seven periods that come between your birthdays. Cycle number three, presented in chapter seven, pertains to the career of your business or any venture or proposition which you have created or which has been brought into birth at some definite time.
Now if you are a business man or woman, or employed in business, or venturing into some busi" ness, or have some proposition which you wish to carry on to success, you will find that you have two cycles to deal with; first, the cycle of your own personal Hfe, and second, the cycle of the
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business or proposition in which you are interested. Each of these two cycles has seven periods to the year, and it is not often that the periods of each of these two cycles are coincidental. If your busi' ness or your business proposition was created and started on one of your birthdays, then its periods each year would run coincidentally with the per' iods of your own personal life. Otherwise, two periods of different conditions will confront you. For instance, let us assume that you who are reading this book were born about the first of June. And let us say that the business you are interested in is something that had its beginning about the first of July. In trying to find out what you should do and should not do in your business and personal affairs during the next thirty or sixty days, you would find if you tabulated the cycle of your business and the cycle of your personal life that personally, you are now in the first period of your yearly cycle, whereas your business would be in the seventh period of your business cycle. In other words, your own personal affairs and personal tendencies and personal interests would be affected by the conditions outlined in period
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mimber one of cycle number two, in the sixth chapter of this book, and your business affairs would be influenced by the conditions explained in period number seven of cycle number three outhned in the seventh chapter of this book. In trying to determine, therefore, what you should do at the present time, you would have to analy2;e and carefully study the conditions in period num^ ber seven of cycle number three, and the condi' tions in period number one of cycle number two pertaining to your personal life.
Whenever it occurs that the time that you are interested in and are consulting this system about, brings your personal life and your business Hf e into the same period, then you can easily understand what to do and what not to do. But, whenever the two periods are different, and you find opposing influences in each of the periods, you must blend them, analyzie them, and decide for yourself what to do. It has been found that certain points will be helpful in this regard. If the business you are in is exclusively your own, then you may be guided by the conditions of your own personal life cycle, as more important and more dominating than the con^
SELF MASTERY AND FATJS
ditions in your business cycle, but the conditions of the business cycle should always be carefully watched by you, and the things that are unf avop able therein carefully avoided, regardless of what may be stated in the periods of your personal cycle.
If the business you are in, or the business matter in which you are interested, is not exclusively your own, but is a partnership, corporation, or a combination of interests, of a number of indi" viduals, then you must bear in mind that to make the business the most successful, you must follow its individual cycle and periods, regardless of your own periods or the periods of the other persons connected with the business.
There are many times in the affairs of big business men, and all successful business men and women of any degree, when personal desires, per' sonal ambitions, personal success and profits, must be laid aside in order that the business which they control may prosper and succeed. In other words, every person who has had any real success in business at all will tell you that very often there have been opportunities, temptations, and incHna' tions in their lives for journeys abroad or long
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
vacations, or other things that would profit them personally, help their health, and increase their knowledge and wisdom. And yet with aU of these things coming at opportune times, and with every temptation to yield to them, they have had to pass them by and sacrifice their own personal interests and opportunities solely because business affairs had a different trend and a different set of con- ditions. On the other hand, it is known that very often when conditions in business are most unfavorable or seemingly so, there are certain conditions in the personal life of an individual connected with that business that permits him to lay business aside and indulge in his own per- sonal affairs with success and without serious injury to his business interests.
The important point to be considered always is whether your individual success, financial progress, and best interests in life are so related to your business affairs that both of them will suffer to- gether, or both of them prosper together, or whether they can be so separated that you indi' vidually may prosper while the business may dc cline, and vice versa. Another important matter
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that must be considered is that in most cases your own personal cycle is of more importance to you and your connection with the business than the cycle of the business itself. If you are merely an employee in business, then the cycle of the business with which you are connected is of little import" ance to you except in so far as you can work with it and help the business by taking advantage of its good periods. If, on the other hand, the only business you have is something that is owned and controlled by you and is your sole income, and you and your family are exclusively dependent upon it, then the business cycle becomes an im- portant matter for your consideration.
If it occurs that in one period of your personal life cycle the conditions are such that it is indi' cated you should exert every possible energy to build and create more business, and push your business interests to the utmost, while at the same time the period of the business cycle indicates that you should let your business remain quiet and not push it too strongly, then the only thing for you to do is to use the conditions of your personal cycle to think and plan and create new and better
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THE CYCLES OF LIFE
things for your business, but do not put them into effect until there is a good period in your business cycle when such things should be done.
The use of the system outlined in this book requires the careful admixture of the indications given in both the personal and business cycle. It calls for a careful study and analysis of the periods in each of these two cycles and a proper blending of them until you come to a conclusion as to what you should do and which of the influences and conditions are the most important. Again I would remind you of the fact that in the average case a person's personal cycle is of more import' ance than the business cycle, but for corporations or big business combines where there are a number of men owning and directing the business, and where the business is an impersonal one, the busi- ness cycle should be given more consideration than the personal cycle of any one of the persons connected with the business.
In all the affairs of the home, of social interests, personal finances, personal plans and progress, the personal cycle is unquestionably the one to be followed above all others.
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