Priorities. Use of English. B 1+

When I first …                [had graduated, graduated, has graduated, was graduated] college and began my career, I was not working according to my own agenda.

Back in …           [1960s, 1960, the 1960, the 1960s] when I studied for the ministry, the majority of my course work had prepared me to do counseling and administration.

So when I began …                 [having worked, to work, to have worked, working] in 1969, guess what I spent most of my time doing. That's right, counseling and administration.

Nothing could have been further from my natural gifts-or my natural …                [opportunities, inclinations, options, possibilities]. Despite much hard work, I was neither fulfilled nor effective.

Because I wanted to improve myself and pick up skills I didn't learn in college, in 1971 I began working on a business degree. While reading for one of the courses, I came across a paragraph …                      [written, writing, having written, having been writing] about Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.

I believe that one of the closest things to a worry-free, wealth-building strategy …       [has, have, was, is]to invest, long term, in the stock market, preferably through your company 401K or if you're self-employed, your SEP.

Once you …              [get through, commit to, come across, get by]the "don't worry" attitude, you'll chuckle as you notice how many people worry, every day, unnecessarily, over which direction the market is moving. "What a relief, the market is having a good day" and "Oh no, the market is down" are frequent comments, but in reality, they have virtually no relevance if you are investing for the long term.

What is there to worry about? By implementing the "pay vourself first" strategy, by investing a predetermined percentage, such as 10 percent of your income to yourself (into high-quality, no-load mutual funds), you virtually guarantee that, over time, you'll …          [provide, amass, obtain, acquire] a small fortune. You simply put the money in, month after month, and leave it there.

One of the most severely limiting beliefs that many of us have …           [had, is, was, had been]that the person we were yesterday is the person we have to be today.

This belief keeps us …              [tying, tied, having tied] to our past mistakes, habits, and limitations. We ..              [certainly, somehow, necessarily, whatever] buy into the notion that history truly does repeat itself, that if we weren't successful yesterday, we certainly can't be successful today or tomorrow.

If you can see how ridiculous and self-defeating this belief is, you can make an instant shift toward success and fulfillment. All of us have unlimited potential and a clean slate in this moment— now. What prevents us from …                     [tapping, tap, being tapped, having been tapped] into this potential is our own mental ties to the past.

Letting …               [going, to go, go, to have gone]of your past is like taking a set of heavy chains from around your neck. It frees you to pursue your dreams and rise to your greatest potential.

I heard a wonderful story about the power of …               [live, living, having lived, being lived]in the present moment.

It involves …                       [being Imagined, imagine, imagining, having been imagined] that you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean.