Do not think so much of victory. Victory is like a possession. Victory is not something that belongs to you and that you own. You do not take victory over another person or a situation. You are not here on earth to win something. Victory seems like a commandeering, and a sense of victory is a sense of control, and control is much too confining.

Think rather in terms of the next step. That's all. Where do you go from here? And then you go. And then when you get there — wherever the next step takes you — you take a peek at where you are, and then ask again, "Where do I go?"

Or, if you are very spontaneous, you do not even have to think about it. You have already moved. A direction chose you, and here you are.

I suspect that a victory is something you plan. But life is not to be planned. You can plan all you want, but your life has its own course to take. It is not that your plans come to naught. It is that you had an incorrect plan. You did not have enough information to plan, and how could you? How could your mind know what is going on, let alone what will be?

Certainly, you are entitled to your ideas, but it is the bountiful nature of ideas to move from one to another. While ideas flow, plans are stagnant. Plans are too limited. They cannot allow for all the possibilities because you don't begin to know what half the possibilities are. You cannot write your life ahead of time.

The ink does not dry on your life. Nor does it dry on another's.

Life is like learning how to walk. And you learn by taking steps. You cannot learn solely in your mind. The mind has only part of the story.

How do you learn to walk in life? By keeping on walking. There is always one more corner to turn, one more door to open. Your life even on earth is not finite. But even that doesn't matter because your life is this moment. It is this step you take. It really isn't so momentous as you often think. It is precious, but not momentous. Or, We could say, it is far more momentous than you have any idea of, so live your life with alacrity right now.

Don't hold on to it so much. Don't hold on to your path. You cannot hold the rug you walk on and still walk on it.

Life is fluid. It is not staked-out. That is the beautiful thing. There are twists and turns and open fields and rivers to cross and hills to climb and rocks and sunshine and clear skies. You cannot predict the path you walk. You don't know what lies beyond this stroll. You can just be open to it.

You don't have to get angry that there is another hill beyond this one or a dip or a winding mountain stream. What care you what the next development is. You cannot control it. You can't make it appear, and you can't make it go away. You can only go along on the terrain that is before you.

This is not predetermination. Letting go of your sense of control does not seal your fate. It opens it. There is no need to restrict yourself in life. There is need to open your path. Your path is your heart, and you must follow it where it takes you, and you follow it, not knowing in advance where it will take you.

This should not be a surprise to you, that you do not lay out your life. It is mysterious that you think you do or must or can.

Know this. There is greatness in the life before you. That is your choice. To choose greatness. To choose how you meet this very life by knowing there is more to it than you know.