If he does one mitzva - happy is he for having tilted himself and the entire world to the side of merit. A person must live with the sensation that an isolated act of his can cause revolutions and decide the fate of the entire world. With the sense that one's actions will affect the fate of the community, we may recite the Thirteen Attributes and merit God's mercy. A person may feel that he is unworthy of acting as a sheliach tzibbur. Surely I am as grave a sinner as any.
Man is likened to a fleeting breath.
He is like broken shard and like a passing dream. But a prayer of the pauper before he faints is so, first and foremost, because of his frustration. How optimistically he viewed things at the start of the year, and yet the year has passed, and a person searches in vain for his accomplishments. It is this same frustration which forms the basis of the month of Ellul. After the sin of the Golden Calf, that same immense frustration was felt by Am Yisrael.