Lama Ole’s answer:
If you do your best in every situation, you can’t go wrong. For example, if you have discovered that you run up the stairs better if you don’t smoke, then you simply tell yourself, “Now I’m not smoking anymore!” Then next week, when a friend comes along with a cigarette and it smells so good that you take a drag, then tell yourself again, “Actually, I don’t smoke. It doesn’t do me any good.” So step by step you evolve away from the habit.
If you easily get upset about things, then think to yourself in that very moment, “Every time I get upset, I get into trouble afterwards; and I don’t want that.” Or if you are easily bothered by someone else, think, “Luckily I only have to be with him for ten minutes. But he has to put up with himself twenty-four hours a day. Poor guy!”