In making effort on some side of oneself, such as some particular form of being negative (judging, vanity, self-pity, superiority, envy, jealousy, complaining), remember that everything goes in cycles in oneself —that is, everything comes round at certain intervals. It is not that these intervals are regular, but that things recur or return, internally, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. The point is that by observation, a person may notice and remember that this is so, and in this way he may gain some foresight and give himself a shock before some mood, some state in himself has properly begun. This belongs to the idea of making effort at the right time. Once a characteristic state or mood, etc., has gained enough strength, it is difficult or impossible to stop it—i.e. it is too late. But if self-observation has developed that special memory of oneself that results from it (and can only result from it, thus the importance of journaling about our states) then if this new memory is strong enough it will give you a point of vantage from where you can make effort upon some useless state, when it is beginning to return. That is, you recognize it. If you really have begun to dislike it, then you will have an emotion to help your memory and thought. This will help and it will also help you to observe more—namely, that the state starts up earlier than you thought, in little trifling things that you had not connected with it before, such as beginning to use certain phrases or in a slight change of feeling to others, and so on. (Nicoll 97)
