Get to Know Yourself (ie. Some Things Depend on Your Ductless Glands)

I find these words that Martyn Lloyd Jones delivered to preachers (concerning how preachers go about their work) to be liberating and helpful. Whether you're a preacher, an insurance broker, a student, or whatever, I think you'll also appreciate these words:

"I am an opponent of universal set rules for all. Nothing is more important than that a man should get to know himself. I include in that that the should get to know himself physically as well as temperamentally and in other respects. I say this because there are those who would prescribe a programme for a preacher and minister; they tell him when to get up in the morning, what to do before breakfast, and what to do later and so on. They do not hesitate to draw up systems and programmes and to advocate these, and indeed almost to suggest that, if a man does not follow such a programme, he is a sinner and a failure. I have always been an opponent of such ideas and for this reason, that we are all different, and that you cannot lay down a programme of this nature for everybody.We live in the body, and our bodies differ from case to case. We also have different temperaments and natures, so you cannot lay down universal rules...Some of us are slow starters in the morning; others wake up fresh and brimful of energy in the morning, like a dog on the leash, waiting to go to work. We do not determine this; it is something constitutional. It depends on many factors, partly, if not chiefly, on blood pressure and such matters as your nervous constitution, the balance of your ductless glands, etc. All these factors come in. I argue therefore that our first business is to get to know ourselves. Get to know how you, with your particular constitution, work. Get to know when you are at your best and how to handle yourself."