Quotation I found in a book of my Dad's

“One must first learn to proceed firmly before one can begin to make oneself over again. He who every day makes a fresh resolve is like one who, arriving at the edge of the ditch he is to leap, forever stops and returns for a fresh run. Without unbroken advance there is no such thing as accumulation of positive forces.”

 

(on how to break a habit or start a new one):

 

FOUR GREAT MAXIMS FOR ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL 

1. We must take care to launch ourselves with as strong an initiative as possible. 
2. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. 
3. Seize the first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make 
4. Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by little gratuitous exercise of it every day.

 William James – 1842-1910

 

From the Condensed Principles of Psychology -, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy – published 1948

 (My Dad, Francis Howard Riggs - age 5)