The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and that of doing good once a year.

Small chances to do harm turn up constantly and cost almost nothing to take. A cutting remark, a withheld piece of information, a bit of gossip, a corner cut: each is available several times a day and each is easy. Real opportunities to do substantial good are rarer and usually require effort, timing and luck. Most of your character is therefore built out of the hundred refusals rather than the one grand act.

Since the big opening may not come this week, work on the small ones. Count the number of times today you could have said the sharp thing and did not. That count is the honest measure.