Grammar is like most subjects: you can learn the basics in a few hours, and spend a lifetime exploring its depths. How deeply you dive into any subject depends on two things: does it interest you, and do you need it? Grammar does not interest most people, but everyone needs it, at least a little.

The reason everyone needs to know at least the basic words of grammar is that they form part of the culture we live in.

People run into two major problems when they try to apply self-improvement ideas or techniques:

1) They attempt too great a change in too short a time, and

2) They expect that by changing one aspect of their life, their whole life will improve.

Major changes are always an accumulation of minor changes. You don't change the direction of an ocean liner instantly, and a life has at least as much momentum as an ocean liner.

The following is based on over twenty years of study and experience. Some small amount of logic and good sense is thrown in to glue it together. The purpose of the following is to encourage the reader toward ever higher quality.

The natural tendency of people is to do things well, and correctly. No one-year-old ever tried to do something less well than he could.

One of the easiest ways to improve your life is to increase quality in all you do.

When you do something better, you are increasing quality. When you make something better, you are increasing its quality. It doesn't matter how much better. Even a little tiny bit better is still an improvement. Then a little bit more than that next time, and a tiny bit more after that, and the effects add up rapidly.

When you raise a child, you are creating the future. Not just his or her future, but everyone's future. The results of your parenting will ripple and spread through the years, affecting thousands, and eventually millions of people. If you want the future to be better than the present, then you had better learn the principles of quality and how they apply to being a parent, for that is all that quality is: making things better.

People who have not studied the principles of quality often think of quality as a goal to be achieved, and get discouraged because it seems so difficult to achieve. This idea is unfortunate, because it shuts the door on success. In any endeavor, from parenting to playing pool to getting a job or a promotion, using quality as a tool will lead to success, inevitably and by definition.

Quality consists of making things better. That's all. When you do something better, when you produce better results, you are achieving higher quality. The rewards range from personal satisfaction to admiration from others to financial success. If you make a relationship better, you get (and give) more happiness. In short, better is good.

The reason people have a hard time achieving higher quality in their lives is they don't know the principles of quality.

To improve something is to make it better. To make something better is to improve its quality. To improve a relationship, increase its quality.

What is quality in a relationship? Two simple words: confidence, and togetherness.

Confidence is not the same as trust. Trust is often based as much on hope as on reason, and is lost for small reasons or no reason at all.