Impulsiveness, laziness, and weaknesses waste time foolishly, wasting human life foolishly. Self-control, industry, and virtues use time wisely, using human life wisely. The world is filled with those living wisely and foolishly, those using time and wasting time, those virtuous and weak, those industrious and lazy, and those self-controlled and impulsive. Hence, the world is filled with successes and failures.

The Compass

The Compass, a Masonic symbol, means to exercise self-restraint and self-control.

To control your destiny, you need to control your behavior. Uncontrolled behavior endangers your destiny. We have heard accounts of people killing others in a fit of rage, people cheating on their spouse in a fit of passion, and people abandoning their goals in a fit of fear. One major slip in self-control can permanently alter your destiny.

Not only does self-control prevent life mistakes, it also accomplishes goals. To accomplish challenging goals, you need to control your behavior by decreasing unnecessary behavior and increasing necessary behavior. For example, instead of watching television, you work on your goal. The more behavior is restricted to a goal, the quicker the goal is accomplished.

The Beehive

The Beehive, a Masonic symbol, means to be industrious.

An industrious person busily pursues his goal; a slothful person idles away his time. The former moves; the latter rests. Movement causes change; rest causes sameness.

If you are unhappy about your present life, you need to change it by moving. Movement solves all of life's problems - if it is positive and solution-focused. A motivated problem-solver lives happily; a motivated complainer lives unhappily.

According to physics, Momentum = Mass x Velocity. In other words, your momentum toward a goal = mass of work done x velocity of doing work. To increase your momentum toward a goal, you can either get more work done or work faster. Actually, getting more work done is working faster.

Motivated movement moves much.

The Virtues

The principal Masonic virtues are fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice.

To be successful in life, you must have fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice. If any one of these virtues is missing, you will not be successful. Fortitude is important, because you need it to persist through obstacles. Prudence is important, because you need it to make good decisions. Temperance is important, because avoiding extremes keeps you balanced. Justice is important, because it keeps you on the straight path and away from the crooked path.

By persisting through obstacles, making good decisions, avoiding extremes, and keeping on the straight path, you cannot fail. Success is ensured. Fortitude + prudence + temperance + justice = success. Contrastively, spinelessness or foolishness or excess or injustice = failure. By quitting, making bad decisions, embracing extremes, or keeping on the crooked path, you cannot succeed. Failure is ensured.

Indeed, virtues equal success; weaknesses equal failure.

The Hourglass

The Hourglass, a Masonic symbol, means human life.

Human life is short. Your time is brief on this planet. Time speeds on whether you enjoy it or not, pursue your goals or not, or help the distressed or not. If you act positively, you use time wisely; if not, you waste time foolishly.

According to physics, time is the fourth dimension. The other three dimensions are length (or depth), width, and height. The dimensions interact with each other. Changing length, width, or height changes an object's appearance. Changing time does likewise. For example, the earth looked differently a thousand years ago, and will look differently a thousand years from now.

Time changes things - for better or worse. Each of us has a piece of time; each of us has some power to change things. Though your time is finite, your changing things is infinite.

In an infinite line of standing dominoes, knocking down one domino knocks down the other dominoes successively and infinitely. In an infinite line of events, changing one event changes the other events successively and infinitely.

Therefore your time gives you power to change events particularly, changing them universally.

Summary

The compass, beehive, and virtues lead to a meaningful hourglass. Contrastively, impulsiveness, laziness, and weaknesses lead to a meaningless hourglass. Are the sands in your hourglass meaningful or meaningless?