It is well-known that all commencements are difficult, and it seems extremely difficult for a person to start learning Mussar, and even when he starts the words do not enter his ears, but in the end his heart will be bowed and they will become music to his ears. Therefore, strengthen yourself in Mussar without letup, and if you weaken once, start again. Strengthen yourself and your heart!
The right approach is to learn the books of Mussar one at a time, and to review them, every day without exception. Even when he reviews books which he has already read, he should consider them like new, and he should find a new arousing according to the time and situation of his soul, for not all times are equal. Seeing that Chazal said that words which come from the heart enter the heart, it is a good idea to learn the chapters of the ethics of the fathers and the parts of the Talmud and Midrash which deal with Mussar.
Even one who has been favored by Hashem and has received a portion amongst those who sit in the study hall and he occupies himself with the difficult parts of the Talmud such as the tractates of Tzaraas (leprosy) and Tents (impurity in houses), must exert himself to learn Mussar, for the study is not the final product without the action, and the greater a person is, the greater is his evil inclination, and even inadvertent sins are considered for such a person as deliberate sins, and Hashem measures their deeds with a measure which checks like a hairsbreadth. A person may not say, “Why should I bother learning these things, I know it all anyway; I know all about the details of how to serve, fear and love Hashem!”. Saying such things is the advice of the evil inclination, for the pint of learning Mussar is to arouse the heart, so that a person should think about that which he is learning and want to be aroused, and to learn in order to fulfil, to keep and to do, in which case the learning will definitely have an effect, and a new spirit will come in to his innards.
