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The lower nature does not let him keep this mood of high resolve long. Not many days pass before it seeks to discourage him. For the old cravings, the desire habits, and the emotional tendencies are still there. Soon they begin to trouble him again. "Why try?" his lower nature despondently tells him, "Why torment yourself uselessly? You can only fail in the end." Thus it creates the expectancy of failure and turns his high adventure into a dismal ordeal. Only a fixed vigilant determination and correct approach will bring forth that inner consent to the new disciplinary habits so necessary to success. Only by re-educating his tendencies and gradually making them quite willing to conform to the right way of living can the lower nature be beaten.

-- Notebooks Category 6: Emotions and Ethics > Chapter 1 : Uplift Character > # 91