Effort, struggle, conflict...

From Symmetry of Soul

There is an eight-fold path to progress: effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress. It is born of the religion of the spirit. Progress is neither automatic nor magical. And it certainly cannot be had simply by arbitrary decreeing something "progress" or "progressive," no matter how popular of a hobby this may be for some.

From [155:5.11] the religion of the spirit (the path to progress) means:

  • Effort
  • Struggle
  • Conflict
  • Faith
  • Determination
  • Love
  • Loyalty
  • ...and then, at long last: Progress

Like the Hero's Journey monomyth, this pattern can play out in our lives fractally—at all scales, and simultaneously on different levels and in different domains of our life.

This is good news. Would you want to even live in a universe where progress was automatic, lazily magical, or utterly subjective?