5. The Path of a Victorious Life

No person living on earth can escape the constraints of time. It is true today, and it has been true throughout history. Individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world all move within the limitation of time.
People everywhere have goals they strive to attain. They focus on their goal for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, seventy years, indeed, their entire lives. The greater our goal, the stronger our inner commitment needs to be if we are to accomplish it. We need to have an inner determination that surpasses the difficulty of the goal, and maintain it without faltering through the allotted span of time. Otherwise, the goal will elude us. (31-149, 05/24/1970)

Since the society, nation and world in which we live are far from ideal, all manner of suffering happens. Good and evil are at cross-purposes. If we take a random sample of a hundred people, we would find that each of them is jostling for advantage in an “every man for himself” struggle within their circumstances as they cope with the demands of their daily lives. Consider that in ordinary life, most people lack the confidence that the tasks they planned in the morning can be completed by the end of the day. People who have a wider range of responsibilities need proportionately greater drive and determination to bring their daily work to a successful conclusion. If their determination and drive are below par, their day will not be success. A series of such bad days can turn into months, and months into years.
Our situation also makes it difficult to meet monthly goals. To be successful, we need enough drive and determination to overcome all the complicated situations and circumstances we may encounter during the month. If that drive and determination are missing, our efforts that month will not be successful.
Having a successful year requires that we equip ourselves with a fighting spirit, with an inner drive strong enough to thrust aside all the challenges of each and every one of its 365 days. We can then celebrate a victorious year. If we live one year like this, and then the next, and continue in this way, it will eventually add up to ten, twenty and thirty years. Over time it becomes the path of a victorious life. (31-30, 04/12/1970)