Discipleship

“To effectively serve others we must see them through a parent’s eyes, through Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we begin to comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love that Heavenly Father has for all of His children. Only then can we sense the Savior’s caring concern for them.”1

Dale G. Renlund

On Monday, my son will be born. I’ve spent some time reflecting and preparing for that moment. I’ve tried envisioning who he really is. He isn’t just a cute newborn. In my arms, I’ll be holding an eternal being whose real identity isn’t from this world. Someone who willingly, eagerly, and excitedly chose to follow Jesus Christ and come to Earth. Someone who God has given a specific purpose and mission to accomplish in this life. Someone who is deeply precious to Almighty God. Someone with His DNA.2

President Eyring once told a story about himself and his son. These are his words: “I remember once a seven- or eight-year-old son of ours jumping on his bed hard enough that I thought it might break. I felt a flash of frustration, and I moved quickly to set my house in order. I grabbed my son by his little shoulders and lifted him up to where our eyes met. The Spirit put words into my mind. It seemed a quiet voice, but it pierced to my heart: ‘You are holding a great person.’ I gently set him back on the bed and apologized.”3

This is how God feels about you.

You are a great person. You have His DNA, potential, and possibilities. He loves you with an intensity, depth, breadth, and purity impossible to comprehend.

You are everything to God.4

May you let this truth distill upon your soul, engraven itself in your mind, and settle itself in your heart. And may it lead you to glorify God.

Leadership

“Your talent is your floor, your character is your ceiling.”5

Cori Close (National Champion UCLA Women’s Basketball Coach)

This is a modern rewording of an ancient maxim: Character is destiny.

What do you believe? Do you believe that character is destiny?

A recent Pew Research study found, “In nearly all countries surveyed, more people say that others in their country have somewhat or very good morals than say their compatriots display somewhat or very bad levels of morality. The United States is the only place we surveyed where more adults (ages 18 and older) describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad (53%) than as good (47%).”

Woof.

Why is that? How is that? Only US citizens think the majority of their neighbors have bad morals.

I think there are a lot of potential reasons. An obvious one would be the political climate we live in today. The national political landscape provides extremely visible displays of character breaches almost daily.6 Consistent character breaches breed public distrust. Thus, the results of the poll.

Unfortunately, it is a temptation to tolerate, justify, or look past poor character in leadership when the leader is satisfying some desire of ours. A non-political example could be the owner of a sports franchise who looks past a player’s abuse of others because he helps them win games. This happens in every arena of life.

As those who care about disciple-leadership, what we are concerned with is how Jesus, the perfect leader, feels about character. Now, let’s pause. If after reading that sentence alone, you already are squirming uncomfortably or preparing to play some mental gymnastics to be at peace with your justifications, don’t feel guilty. Recognize that we all do it. Also recognize that that isn’t a reaction we want to have. We want to be like Christ, and Christ, “rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth”7, however uncomfortable or inconvenient it is.

In his exceptional book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey starts by contrasting primary and secondary greatness. Secondary greatness refers to exterior leadership skills: skilled communication, charm, charisma, etc. Primary greatness, however, refers to character strength. He writes, “Eventually, if there isn’t deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success. Many people with secondary greatness lack primary greatness or goodness in character. Sooner or later, you’ll see this in every long-term relationship they have, whether it is with a business associate, a spouse, a friend, or a teenage child going through an identity crisis. It is character that communicates most eloquently. As Emerson once put it, ‘What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.”8

Jesus taught clearly on the importance of character.

1. The Book of Mormon teaches, “For behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth bitter water.”9 Similarly, Jesus taught, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”10 In other words, what you do reveals who you are.11 His mouthpiece on the earth echoed Christ’s teaching by saying, “My dear brothers and sisters, how we treat each other really matters! How we speak to and about others at home, at church, at work, and online really matters.”12

2. Jesus taught, “For what shall it profit a man though he should win the whole world, if he lose his own soul?”13 In other words, what matters to the Lord more than any accomplishment, achievement, honor, objective, milestone, dignity, mission, ambition, agenda, attainment, proficiency, triumph, success, outcome, veneration, or ANYTHING else, is your soul. Or, in other words, your character.14

Mental Performance

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”15

Napoleon Hill

President Nelson once asked, “What would you do if you had more faith? Think about it. Write about it. Then receive more faith by doing something that requires more faith.”16

Another way to think about this idea is: What would you do if you knew it were impossible to fail?

I listened to a song recently that had some lyrics that moved me. The artist describes it as his fail-proof philosophy.

(Some) truth(s are) hard for me;

Like the second time I got cut from the junior varsity;

Fightin’ back tears, I promised to switch gears;

And said to myself, “Whatever you do, you won’t do it partially”;

From this day forward, I move with a new ferocity;

Ferrari coupe velocity, a fail proof philosophy;

Success is in the effort, so if I tried my hardest;

I’m at peace knowin’ God ain’t deal it in this group of cards for me;17

In the end, moving towards your goals, mission, and purpose as if it were impossible to fail is the only way to live the life that God intends for you.

Why?

1. Because God speaks to us through our desires, strengths, and gifts. Those—in concert with the Holy Ghost—are compasses pointing you where you should go.18

2. If you act as if it were impossible to fail, you’re much more likely to accomplish things that truly matter to you and God.

3. If you act as if it were impossible to fail, work as if it were impossible to fail, and then fail, you can know with surety it just wasn’t in God’s plan for you. And that brings peace, too. You’ll also come to learn that there really is no such thing as failure (at least not how most think about it).19 What doesn’t bring peace is feeling like God wants something for you, or having a dream, not working as hard as you can for it, not accomplishing it, and then always wondering whether not accomplishing it was due to God having other plans or your lack of effort. Don’t open yourself up to those kinds of regrets.

Discipleship

“And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.”1

Luke 15:21-22 (KJV)

The parable of the prodigal son powerfully illuminates the nature of God. As the Master Teacher, it is one of Jesus’ masterpieces. To truly appreciate this teaching—and just how deeply God loves you—it’s crucial to understand a little more about the context of the world His immediate audience was living in.

The Father in this parable represents God. The prodigal son represents you and me.

The prodigal decided to leave home and take his inheritance with him. It’s notable that he asked for his inheritance while the father was still alive. This was a sign of serious disrespect. As one commentator noted, “To ask this while the father still lived was the same as to wish him dead.”2 Between the social and cultural dishonor the father must’ve felt from his son asking out of his life—not to mention the personal rejection and injury—it would’ve made sense and, frankly, seem fairly justified if the father’s feelings for his son were dimmed and the relationship between them severed.

Yet, they weren’t. At all.

After struggling mightily out on his own, the humbled son decided to return home, embarrassed and pleading for mercy.

Remarkably, to the father, this son’s return didn’t warrant any “I told you so’s” or “ this is what you deserve’s” from the father. He refused to even accept the son’s offer of servitude.

No, his son’s return warranted the best robe and the fatted calf.3

The 19th-century preacher Octavius Winslow wrote, “No ebb in the tide of your affection, nor trembling in the needle of your faith, has created, or can create, the slightest variation in His love or faithfulness. Your waywardness has not chilled it, your fickleness has not affected it, your sinfulness has not forfeited it, because He is essentially, immutably, and eternally the same.”4

God’s love for you burns brighter than the sun. It does not dim. It cannot. It is not in God’s nature for it to.5

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? …

No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.6

Leadership

“You are not your grand plans. You are your daily patterns.”7

James Clear

A recent article published in The Athletic8 polled 100 people in professional sports. The sample included Hall of Famers, Heisman winners, general managers, NFL, NBA, MLB players, Olympians, and many more. The question was simple: Who are the five leaders in sports they most admired in 2025?

The most admired leader? Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

Before his first season as Warriors head coach, Steve spent some time in Seattle with Pete Carroll and the Seahawks. He wanted to watch and observe how an elite organization went about its business.

Pete had spent years as an NFL coach before becoming the head coach at USC. Despite that, he told Steve that he didn’t learn how to coach until he was at USC. Steve asked him what he meant by that. Pete explained, “I realized that every day had to be a reflection of my values as a coach. Those values had to be practiced. It couldn’t be just … slogans (on the wall). It’s about what your day looks like and what it feels like when you walk into the (room).”9

After some reflection, Steve gained clarity on his 4 core values: joy, compassion, mindfulness, and competition.

If you watched the Warriors during the Kerr era, it’s easy to see how his team embodied those values. You can’t watch Steph Curry play without seeing joy.

There is a convincing and convicting power in a leader who lives out his values. In contrast, a leader who refuses or fails to practice their stated values isn’t just a net neutral to those around them; it’s a major negative influence. The lack of authenticity kills belief, enthusiasm, and momentum. It’s better not to have values than to profess values that you aren’t willing to live.

Mental Performance

In a 2023 newsletter, I wrote10, “One of the most important skills in life is learning to talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself.” I believe that much more strongly today. Not only because of the tremendous amounts of evidence of its benefits11, but also because this practice is modeled in scripture.12

The Psalm of Nephi is one of the greatest examples of a prophet refusing to give in to his initial discouraging thoughts but instead engaging in the essential practice of inspired self-talk.

Below is an excerpt from 2 Nephi chapter 4. Italicized are the initial emotions/thoughts that flood his mind. In bold is his internal self talking back.

17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.

20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.

21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

22 He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me.

23 Behold, he hath heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the night-time.

24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.

25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them.

26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.13

What can we glean from this? There are a few principles I take away:

1. Nephi is clearly very distressed by these feelings of discouragement, sorrow, grief, and even self-loathing.

2. Nephi is also clearly very experienced at self-talk. He provides a textbook example of how to do it. He zoomed in and out of his current situation to gain perspective. He expressed genuine gratitude despite feelings that could justify withholding gratitude. He poked holes in the reasoning of his initial thoughts. He applied logic, data, and evidence against his initial thoughts.

3. Nephi shows that two things can be true. You can simultaneously feel really hard feelings and not be paralyzed by them. In fact, you can flourish despite them. Flourishing isn’t the elimination or absence of hard feelings. It’s developing the skills and capacity to function at a high level in the face of hard feelings. It would be wonderful for those hard feelings to go away. But if not, you need not be in a state of mental or spiritual paralysis.14

4. For Nephi, Jesus Christ was central to His self-talk.

What would Nephi’s personal narrative have been had he not actively practiced talking to himself? What if he just listened to his emotions and initial thoughts without challenging them at all?

My heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me.

And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins.

How bleak if Nephi were to accept those feelings at face value as truth. Yet, this is what so many people do. It is debilitating, exhausting, crushing, and absolutely anti-scriptural. It is antithetical to the principles of rational thinking. But most importantly, it’s anti-Christ, meaning it goes against what prophets have modeled and what Jesus taught.15

A daily practice of inspired self-talk16 is the antidote to many problems and a key element of elite mental performance.

Discipleship

“Having bumpers is different than aiming for the target. We need to aim for strikes.”1

Jeffrey R. Holland

What does it mean to aim for strikes, spiritually speaking?

It means aiming for conversion to the Savior, as opposed to conversion to an institution, people, culture, etc.

There are so many amazing benefits of a church community. There are great people. There are great activities and programs. There is a welcoming, loving environment of people. These are really important. These are the necessary bumpers.2 But just like in bowling, not everyone who bowls with the bumpers up gets strikes. Strikes are only awarded to those who aim for strikes.

Daily engagement with the doctrine of Christ is what it means to aim for strikes. The doctrine of Christ is the disciple’s daily operating system. It’s their personal culture.

The doctrine of Christ includes exercising faith in Jesus Christ, repenting daily, honoring covenants with God, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and cycling through these steps repeatedly and iteratively.3 This is how to come unto and become like Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine that He taught.

Jesus Christ is the way. He is the mark. Don’t miss the mark.4

Leadership

“If you were the main character in a movie of your life, what would the audience be screaming at you to do right now?”5

Sahil Bloom

This week I watched the new movie Project Hail Mary. It was a fantastic movie. It had all the elements a great film typically has. I will avoid spoiling anything, but there are definitely themes that make for a great, compelling, inspiring story or character.

• They have a pursuit or quest.

• They are not perfect.

• They have some sort of skill or gift.

• They are proactive.

• They are vulnerable.

• There is some sort of hero’s journey.

Your life is a story. You are the main character. Just like a movie character, you can’t control all the circumstances, but you have complete control over your choices. You can be proactive and impact change. You have the power. You hold the pen.6

This is one of the primary reasons you are here on this earth. God wants you to be high agency, which means that He wants you to proactively (not reactively) use your agency to impact the world in a meaningful way.

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.7

A couple years ago, while being mired in uncertainty regarding my future (particularly wondering what career path to take), I went to the temple to seek the will of the Lord. At the time, my wife was pregnant with our first child. After being in the temple, I spent some time outside on the grounds, pondering about my situation. The Lord spoke to me. He didn’t give me any answers as to what I should do. But He did inspire my mind with a list of questions to ask myself. Principles to guide my thinking, if you will. Here is the list of questions I received that day:

1. What story do I want written about my life?

2. What story do I want my children to read about my life?

3. Am I living life by design?

4. Am I the creator of circumstance (agent who acts) or the creature of circumstances (object acted upon)?

5. Am I writing the story of my life? Or is someone else holding the pen?

6. Fortune favors the Bold. Is my faith bold? Are my actions bold? Are my intentions bold? Is my heart bold?

7. Am I leading by faith/conviction or fear?

So, how would you answer these? Your answers might just tell you what you should do next.

Mental Performance

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”8

Viktor Frankl

Latter-day Saint scholar Terry Givens recently appeared on a podcast talking about early Christian history. Here is an excerpt of what he said: “Elaine Pagels, in trying to account for the rapid growth and overwhelming popularity and emergence of Christianity, the one concept that she thinks is the key to this explosive dynamism of early Christianity is the concept of an autonomous will. This notion that we actually have the freedom to determine our own natures. To love freely, to choose freely, to respond freely. This is what animate(d) Christians who lived in such a highly stratified, hierarchical, deterministic universe.”

This truth, that you have an autonomous will, that you have the power to choose and change, is explosive in the best way. Read the following statements.

• Book of Mormon: “Cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.”9

• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People: “Our unique human endowments lift us above the animal world. The extent to which we exercise and develop these endowments empowers us to fulfill our uniquely human potential. Between stimulus and response is our greatest power—the freedom to choose.”

• Man’s Search for Meaning: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

• Terryl Givens: “Agency is enshrined as the very ground of human existence itself.”10

Can you taste how good these principles are? Can you see why these would cause so much excitement and energy to people mired in a culture of determinism?

Here, your most crucial challenge … will be to believe that you can change, that there can be a different you. To disbelieve that is clearly a satanic device designed to discourage and defeat you. When you get home tonight, you fall on your knees and thank your Father in Heaven that you … have grasped a gospel that promises repentance to those who will pay the price. Repentance is not a foreboding word. It is following faith, the most encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary. Repentance is simply the scriptural invitation for growth and improvement and progress and renewal. You can change! You can be anything you want to be in righteousness.

If there is one lament I cannot abide—and I hear it from adults as well as students—it is the poor, pitiful, withered cry, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” If you want to talk about discouragement, that phrase is one that discourages me. Though not a swearing man, I am always sorely tempted to try my hand when I hear that. Please spare me your speeches about “That’s just the way I am.” I’ve heard that from too many people who wanted to sin and call it psychology. And I use the word sin again to cover a vast range of habits, some seemingly innocent enough, that nevertheless bring discouragement and doubt and despair.

You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That’s another satanic suckerpunch—that it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it. Of course there will be problems to work out and restitutions to make. You may well spend—indeed you had better spend—the rest of your life proving your repentance by its permanence. But change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come for you as instantaneously as for Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Even if you have serious amends to make, it is not likely that you would qualify for the term, “the vilest of sinners,” which is the phrase Mormon uses in describing these young men. Yet as Alma recounts his own experience in the thirty-sixth chapter of the book that bears his name, his repentance appears to have been as instantaneous as it was stunning.

Do not misunderstand. Repentance is not easy or painless or convenient. It is a bitter cup from Hell. But only Satan, who dwells there, would have you think that a necessary and required acknowledgment is more distasteful than permanent residence. Only he would say, “You can’t change. You won’t change. It’s too long and too hard to change. Give up. Give in. Don’t repent. You are just the way you are.” That, my friends, is a lie born of desperation. Don’t fall for it.11

Discipleship

“Take an inventory of how you spend your time and where you devote your energy. That will tell you where your heart is.”1

Russell M. Nelson

In Christian vocabulary, three words describe a lot about what matters to God. Those words are orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthoocardia.

As one Christian writer defined them, “Orthodoxy is the term for the traditional beliefs in any given religious tradition. Orthopraxy refers to righteous conduct.”2

Orthocardia means having a right heart before God. Theoretically, having orthocardia should push someone towards orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

Augustine taught about the importance of ordering your loves. His idea was that “You harm yourself when you love anything more than God.”3 To have correctly ordered loves, God must be first, and everything must be subordinate to that.

I wonder if we were to order orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthocardia, where they would fall. All of these matter to God, but which matters most to Him? Maybe the scriptures will have an answer for us.

Orthodoxy

• “They shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come unto him and be saved.”4

  • Clearly, there is salvific significance to orthodoxy.

Orthopraxy

• “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect … Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only … For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”5

  • If we are saved by faith in Christ, and faith without works is dead, clearly there is salvific significance to orthopraxy.

Orthocardia

• For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing ... if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift ... if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.6

• Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.7

From these verses, it’s clear that even if externally one is wholly orthodox and wholly orthoprax, God doesn’t view it that way unless one is wholly orthocardic. “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”8

You can do everything right, but without love, without a heart correctly motivated, it’s wrong.

Thus, the proper spiritual formation of your heart—orthocardia—is what God cares most about, and is what should be ordered at the top of your priority list.

Leadership

“Within each of our circles of friendship there lie so many unused opportunities to love, to serve, and to be taught … None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship. You and I may call these intersectings ‘coincidence.’ This word is understandable for mortals to use, but coincidence is not an appropriate word to describe the workings of an omniscient God. He does not do things by ‘coincidence’ but instead by ‘divine design.”9

Neal A. Maxwell

I read an inspiring piece recently by Tyler Cowen. Pasting it below without comment. There’s so much truth and wisdom in it.

Yesterday I had lunch with a former Ph.D student of mine, who is now highly successful and tenured at a very good school. I was reminded that, over twenty years ago, I was Graduate Director of Admissions. One of my favorite strategies was to take strong candidates who applied for Masters and also offer them Ph.D admissions, suggesting they might to do the latter. My lunch partner was a beneficiary of this de facto policy.

At least two of our very best students went down this route. Ex ante, neither realized that it was common simply to apply straight to a Ph.D program, skipping over the Masters. I believe this is now better known, but the point is this.

At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, especially when they are relatively young, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous.

This is in fact one of the most valuable things you can do with your time and with your life.10

Mental Performance

“(Your brain) consists of about one hundred billion neurons and trillions of supporting glia cells … Collectively, if laid out end to end, our neurons would be over two million miles long.”11

Dan Siegel

Above are two photos. The first photo shows a single neuron, with its thousands of nerve fibers and connecting synapses. The second photo shows a photo of just 1 cubic millimeter of your brain and it’s “microscopic cosmos”12 of neurons and connections, as one has called it.13 The activation of just one neuron can influence an average of ten thousand other neurons, due to the spiderweb-like interconnections you can observe in these photos.14

The human brain is arguably the most spectacular of God’s creations. It is awe-inspiring.15 It is also humbling to realize just how much power we have in shaping our brains. You’ve probably heard of neuroplasticity. It is the truth that our brains are not static, but in fact, they are continually changing. Our experiences and choices determine how our brains change. As one scientist put it, “Everyday experiences … shape brain structure. The brain’s development is in part an ‘experience-dependent’ process, in which experience activates certain pathways in the brain, strengthening existing connections and creating new ones … Lack of sensory experience can lead to cell death … This is sometimes referred to as the ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ principle of brain development.”16

The Savior wasn’t just teaching a spiritual truth, but also a neurological one, when He taught, “For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”17 He is, after all, the Master neuroscientist.

Each time you repeat a behavior or repeat a thought, specific connections grow stronger in your brain until they become your default patterns. Whether you are creating good or bad habits, it makes no difference to your brain. It simply strengthens wherever you give your attention and whatever you experience.

I think this is why President Russell M. Nelson taught, “There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.”18 The doubts and fears fleeing come in multiple ways — both from the power of God and also from natural neurological reactions. Your brain physically changes to reflect what you consistently focus on. So when Alma asked, “I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?”,19 you can know that His image can be engraven on your countenance. You can see Him as He is and be like Him;20 you can attain unto the mind of Christ.21 Your brain can literally change to be like His. You just have to think what He would think, act as He would act, have your neurons wire together how His neurons wired together, and then these realities will be yours.

Discipleship

“Not once are we told that God is ‘provoked to love’ or ‘provoked to mercy.’ His anger requires provocation; his mercy is pent up, ready to gush forth. We tend to think: divine anger is pent up, spring-loaded; divine mercy is slow to build. It’s just the opposite. Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick.”1

Dane Ortlund

God loves you more deeply, more perfectly, and more profoundly than your human cognition will ever be able to even begin comprehending. God is for you. He loves you more than you love you. He never tires of forgiving.2 His heart towards you is tender, soft, and warm, never reluctant.3 Never disinclined or apathetic. Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”4 He delights to shower you with divine love. He immediately blesses you when you follow Him.5

Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick. It doesn’t take much. This week, find a way to exercise your faith and feel His perfect love for you.

Leadership

“It is noble to give your life for a cause. It is even more noble to give your daily life to it.”6

Pete Davis

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve heard coaches talk about the idea of “stacking days”. It’s been the theme of Kevin Young’s (BYU basketball coach) tenure. He talks about it so much that people even made a shirt in honor of it.7

Why do coaches emphasize this philosophy so much? Nick Saban gave his explanation for it: “It’s really important that they (the players) are able to focus on what they control today. We have so many players here who get frustrated about what happened yesterday, or they get complacent because they had success yesterday, and then we get some players who are worried about what’s going to happen in the future, but really the things you do today, correctly—making the right choices, having the right work ethic, preparing yourself to go out and perform at a high-level on a consistent basis—that’s what really prepares you for the future. Understand that’s what you control and that’s what’s going to help you in your future. All of us are a little addicted to tomorrow. I’ll quit smoking tomorrow, I’ll go on a diet tomorrow, I’ll lose weight tomorrow. But really, making it happen today is the way you improve, is the way you get better, is the way you create more value for yourself.”8

There is no other mindset that works. Approaching your life in time periods longer than today leads to endless procrastination and, ultimately, endless consternation. Your life is made up of days. You have to think about your life through this lens.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote: “As our days go, so go our lives. One author put it this way: ‘A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. … And at the end of your life, your whole existence has that same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.’

“Do you want to change the shape of your life? Change the shape of your day. Do you want to change your day? Change this hour. Change what you think, feel, and do at this very moment.A small rudder can steer a large ship. Small bricks can become magnificent mansions. Small seeds can become towering sequoias. Minutes and hours well spent are the building blocks of a life well lived.”9

One philosopher described his mindset this way: “He must live each day as if his whole existence were telescoped down to the single day before him. With no useless regret for the past, no useless worry for the future, he should live that day as if it were his only day,—the only day left for him to assert all that is best in him, the only day left for him to conquer all that is worst in him.”10

You don’t know how many, but the truth is, you only have so many days left to live. Maybe you have thousands. Maybe not! Don’t wait to live. Your life is only as beautiful and rich as are your days. Said another way, the quality of your life is only as good as the quality of your days. If you want to have a life you are proud of, follow the counsel of John Wooden: “Make each day your masterpiece.”11

Mental Performance

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself?”12

Epictetus

Read that Epictetus quote again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

The world is waiting for your response.

Discipleship

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”1

Tim Keller

Was Jesus resurrected? This is the most important question of your life.

Along with Tim Keller, Elder D. Todd Christofferson expounded on how deep the implications of this question are.

“Consider for a moment the significance of the Resurrection in resolving once and for all the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth and the great philosophical contests and questions of life. If Jesus was in fact literally resurrected, it necessarily follows that He is a divine being. No mere mortal has the power in himself to come to life again after dying. Because He was resurrected, Jesus cannot have been only a carpenter, a teacher, a rabbi, or a prophet. Because He was resurrected, Jesus had to have been a God, even the Only Begotten Son of the Father.

“Therefore, what He taught is true; God cannot lie.

“Therefore, He was the Creator of the earth, as He said.

“Therefore, heaven and hell are real, as He taught.

“Therefore, there is a world of spirits, which He visited after His death.

“Therefore, He will come again, as the angels said, and ‘reign personally upon the earth.’

“Therefore, there is a resurrection and a final judgment for all.

“Given the reality of the Resurrection of Christ, doubts about the omnipotence, omniscience, and benevolence of God the Father —who gave His Only Begotten Son for the redemption of the world —are groundless. Doubts about the meaning and purpose of life are unfounded. Jesus Christ is in fact the only name or way by which salvation can come to mankind. The grace of Christ is real, affording both forgiveness and cleansing to the repentant sinner. Faith truly is more than imagination or psychological invention. There is ultimate and universal truth, and there are objective and unchanging moral standards, as taught by Him.

“Given the reality of the Resurrection of Christ, repentance of any violation of His law and commandments is both possible and urgent. The Savior’s miracles were real, as is His promise to His disciples that they might do the same and even greater works. His priesthood is necessarily a real power that ‘administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.’ Given the reality of the Resurrection of Christ, death is not our end, and though ‘skin worms destroy [our bodies], yet in [our] flesh shall [we] see God.”2

To summarize that quote, if Jesus was resurrected, everything changes! So, was Jesus resurrected? Is it a cool story or is it historical? And how can you know?

I’d share two suggestions.

First, and most importantly, ask God. Exercise faith, read the scriptures, and seek revelation. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth and there is no truth more important to know than this. It is the keystone of Christianity. If the resurrection didn’t happen, Christianity crumbles. The Holy Ghost would love to testify concerning Christ’s resurrection.

Second, I think it’s important to realize that the resurrection is historically verifiable. I will share some resources in the footnotes that you learn more about that.3

Simply put, Jesus resurrection either happened or it didn’t. It’s real or it’s fake. There is no fuzzy gray area or middle ground when it comes to this. I witness that it did happen. He lives. He is a resurrected, living, perfected Being. But you have to find that out for yourself. If you aren’t sure, you shouldn’t wait any longer to find out. There is nothing more important to gain clarity on.4

Leadership

“Everything rises and falls with the level of your leadership.”5

John Maxwell

Every action, every goal, every decision, and ultimately, every outcome6 is a measurement and reflection of your leadership.

This is true both intrapersonally and interpersonally.

You are either leading your life or being led.7 This is doctrinal. The Book of Mormon teaches, “There is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.”8

This is also a scientific case for this.9

William George Jordan articulated this truth in a way that really resonates. He wrote: “Man has two creators,—his God and himself. His first creator furnishes him the raw material of his life and the laws in conformity with which he can make that life what he will. His second creator,—himself,—has marvelous powers he rarely realizes. It is what a man makes of himself that counts … Man in his weakness is the creature of circumstances; man in his strength is the creator of circumstances. Whether he be victim or victor depends largely on himself.”10

Everything rises and falls with the level of your leadership.

Mental Performance

“The greatest sin you can commit against your own life, is to know what you want - and not act.”11

Kim Stafford

What keeps you from acting? You might have different answers for different scenarios. But the deep reason for most scenarios is that you just lack courage.

Courage—like love—is in short supply these days, which means it’s in high demand! We love seeing other people be brave. It’s contagious. We go to movies, watch TV, read books, and consume all sorts of media portraying people acting courageously. Someone once accurately observed, “People pay money to see others believe in themselves.”12 It’s true! It’s mesmerizing and inspiring. Maybe because it’s so rare.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality.”13

That’s a true statement. One neuroscientist wrote, “Our nervous system leaves no fossil record of our thoughts, feelings or ideas, except those which are transformed into actions.”14 Courage is the catalyst to transforming thoughts, feelings, or ideas into action. Think about it. Without courage, nothing happens. You might feel love for someone or have an intention to say something kind, but without courage, that intention will never turn into action.

I have a vivid memory being a missionary on a hot summer day in 2016. After a brief conversation with a hostile man on his driveway, my companion and I proceeded to our next destination. As we walked across the street, I had a very strong feeling that I needed to go back and share my testimony with him. But he was angry. He didn’t like us. My exchange with him would end even more badly than the first had. Justification after justification led to me smothering any oxygen that impression was carrying. So we kept walking. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t even tell my companion.

To this day, I think about that moment. Who knows what would’ve happened. Maybe he would’ve continued to be angry. Maybe a miracle would’ve occured. I don’t know. But I do know that I had no courage on that day, and as a result, nothing happened.

Nothing meaningful has ever happened without courage. Think about the big moments in your life.

• Job Interview

• Asking someone on a date

• Proposing

• Trying out for a team

• Starting a venture

• Starting a family

This is a small sample, but none of these happen without courage. Courage is the ultimate litmus test for discerning how worthwhile an action is. There is a direct correlation between the meaning something will have in your life and the courage it requires from you. If you want to have meaningful days, if you want to live a meaningful life, filter your choices by the courage they will require.

Lastly, it serves nobody to play it small.15 Actually, playing it small isn’t just an act of cowardice, it’s an act of disobedience. Consider what Jesus taught: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”16

What are you currently shrinking from? Where in your life have you been hesitating? What has God planted in your heart that you have not treated with the seriousness and courage that He wants from you?

Whatever that is, this is your sign to stop justifying. Stop hesitating. Act.

Maybe one of the reasons Jesus asked us to “become as little children”17 is because children have a belief and imagination requisite to accomplish the goals and reach the heights that God has in store for you. Somewhere along the way, life seems to sully our vision of that. Your work is to become like a child again in how you see yourself and your ability to accomplish the impossible.18

Two statements to end this week’s newsletter:

1. “A child has no trouble believing the umbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.”19

2. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”20

Discipleship

“Many of us profess to be Christians, yet we … do not take Him seriously. … We respect Him, but we don’t follow Him. … We quote His sayings, but we don’t live by them. We admire Him, but we don’t worship Him.”1

Dr. James Clarke

One of the greatest misconceptions is that there is power in merely respecting or admiring Christ. While the sentiment is satisfying, it is not scriptural.2 Sure, respecting Christ (if it implies not actively rebelling against Him) will keep you safe from the consequences of more serious sin. But power comes from faith in Christ. The Book of Mormon does an excellent job at expounding on what power-inducing faith looks like.

“And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land;”

There is no power without faith. And there is no faith without faithfulness.3

Leadership

“What you win them with is what you win them to. Our methods are not just important for our message, they are part of the message.”4

Gavin Ortlund

Christ was very serious about this principle of leadership. Think of all the times Jesus used the method to teach the message.5 One example would be when He washed the feet of His disciples. Think also of all the times Jesus refrained from doing something self-advantageous or delivering a strong message because the method would betray what He was really trying to teach. One example would be when Peter cut off the ear of Malchus.6 Jesus responded, saying, “Put up again thy sword into his place … Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”7

What you win them with is what you win them to.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”8

In other words, you can do everything right. But without love, it is wrong.

And if you win someone to your cause with anything other than love, you are winning them to the wrong thing. With absolute assurance, you can know that is not how Christ would lead. The first and last law of Christlike leadership is and will always be love.9

Mental Performance

“The highest levels of performance require the deepest levels of belief.”10

Robin Sharma

There is a direct correlation between how hard you work and how deeply you believe. Someone put it this way: “Hope dictates effort.”11

But hope in what, exactly?

1. That you can be the greatest—or at minimum, successful—at what you are setting out to do.

2. That what you are doing matters.

Your effort and hope will always be synonymous. You will never outwork your belief. You’ll never out-effort your hope. One of the three components of Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept12 is “What Can You Be The Best In The World At?” You have to find that thing and work harder than anyone else at it. This is the biggest reason you hear so much about self-belief. Yes, your thoughts are powerful.13 Yes, simply changing your thoughts can change many things in your life. But separation comes from preparation. It comes from work. Reps. Practice.

Working in a way that allows you to reach the highest levels of your potential has to be preceded by soul-deep self-belief. It is the only way.

Discipleship

“Read the Scripture, not as an attorney may read a will, but as the heir reads it, as a description and proof of his interest.”1

John Newton

Paul taught, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.2

One writer, commenting on this verse, wrote, “Not subordinate heirs, not junior, not contingent, but joint, equal heirs with Christ Himself, to share in all that He shall share.”3

You are an heir to God. Read that again.

You are an heir to God.

And as an heir to God, with the potential to inherit all that He has, you should read scripture to learn what your future will look like.

“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. . . . The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.”4

You can receive all that the Father has. And what is that?

“(You) shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths … to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

“Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.5

This is how much God loves you: that He wants to transform you—through your faith and by His grace— into a fully exalted being. This is how much power God has: that He can transform you, yes you, into someone like Him.6

Leadership

“You can’t evangelize someone you hate.”7

Esau McCaulley

One of the most important yet misunderstood principles in life is that you can not influence without great love. Love is what people respond to.

Abraham Lincoln understood this principle. One biographer wrote, “In order to ‘win a man to your cause,’ Lincoln explained, you must first reach his heart, ‘the great high road to his reason.”8

Lincoln was obviously anti-slavery. But he lived in an America where slavery was legal. How did he go about trying to influence or evangelize people to his cause? “Rather than upbraid slaveowners, Lincoln sought to comprehend their position through empathy. More than a decade earlier, he had employed a similar approach when he advised temperance advocates to refrain from denouncing drinkers in ‘thundering tones of anathema and denunciation,’ for denunciation would inevitably be met with denunciation, ‘crimination with crimination, and anthem with anathema.’ In a passage directed at abolitionists as well as temperance reformers, he had observed that it was the nature of man, when told that he should be ‘shunned and despised,’ and condemned as the author ‘of all the vice and misery and crime in the land,’ to ‘retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.’ Though the case be ‘naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel,’ the sanctimonious reformer could no more pierce the heart of the drinker or the slaveowner than ‘penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him.”9

You can’t evangelize someone you hate.

The most important quality to possess as a leader who hopes to influence others is charity, the pure love of Christ. And the clearest outward manifestation of that love is the ability to really listen.

One essayist wrote, “I want to write about the great and powerful thing that listening is. And how we forget it. And how we don't listen to our children, or those we love. And least of all - which is so important, too - to those we do not love. But we should. Because listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. Think how the friends that really listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius as though it did us good, like ultraviolet rays.

“This is the reason: When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life. You know how if a person laughs at your jokes you become funnier and funnier, and if he does not, every tiny little joke in you weakens up and dies. Well, that is the principle of it. It makes people happy and free when they are listened to. And if you are a listener, it is the secret of having a good time in society (because everybody around you becomes lively and interesting), of comforting people, of doing them good.

“Who are the people, for example, to whom you go for advice? Not to the hard, practical ones who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners; that is, the kindest, least censorious, least bossy people you know. It is because by pouring out your problem to them, you then know what to do about it yourself.”10

Mental Performance

You are the sum total of all that you have thought, done, said, seen, heard and felt in this life and before. You change immediately with each good thought, each good act, every good word changes you for the better. When you willingly obey the principles of the gospel, you are changed by the Spirit of God to become incrementally more like Him. The degree of change with each small act of obedience may be small, but it is real and immediate. The full, cumulative and perfect realization of this process of change or sanctification happens only over time, but make no mistake that you are always changing, and that the effects of your obedience are immediate, whether for better or for worse, depending upon the voice you chose to follow.11

Lawrence Corbridge

This idea, in a nutshell, is that you are constantly changing. As one author put it, “We are constantly undergoing microevolutions of the self.”12

There is scientific evidence for this. Our thoughts emit electromagnetic signals, gradually rewiring our patterns of thinking. Hebb famously wrote, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”13 Each thought triggers an electromagnetic signal that travels through your neurons.

“Our thoughts are actual protein patterns that alter the form and function of our brain. Our mind is like a muscle. The thoughts that we repeat, that we exercise, that we train, grow stronger. The thoughts we eliminate, do not use, and avoid grow weaker. Thoughts are mental reps for the brain. Just like a muscle, the thoughts we exercise grow. The thoughts we don’t, atrophy.

“This is called neuroplasticity. In a nutshell, it is that new neural connections and pathways can be formed or reformed purely based off our thoughts.”14

Therefore, the quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. If you want to have a beautiful life, think beautiful thoughts. If you want beautiful thoughts, you need to have the right inputs.

James Clear said, “The quality of your thoughts is determined by the quality of your reading. Spend more time thinking about the inputs.”15

God, who wants you to have the highest and most excellent of thoughts, cares deeply about your inputs. He said, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom.”16

The Doctrine of Non-Stasis

Here, I’ll just share a few doctrinal statements that support this idea as well.

1. “Our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. [That is because] there is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” - C.S. Lewis17

2. Dale G. Renlund has likened our faith to a car driving on a long road ascending a mountain peak. With that visual in mind, he taught: "Note that nowhere on the upwardly spiraling road is it perfectly horizontal; nowhere is the slope zero; there is no plateau; there is no place to pause and rest; and the course either goes up or down. Similarly, faith is either becoming stronger or weaker."18

3. "For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”19 - Jesus Christ

4. He doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you…”20

You can’t control whether or not you change. Whether you like it or not, that is happening. What you can control is how you change.

So, how will you change?

Discipleship

“The Lord knew —in this fast-paced world full of distractions and in commotion —that making quality time for Him would be one of the major challenges of our day.”1

L. Todd Budge

Psalms has been labeled the prayer book of the Bible.2 Almost every Psalmic chapter is an actual prayer being offered.3 Psalm 1, however, is not a prayer. It’s an introduction. It is an introduction to the prayer book of the Bible, which, to me, feels like an instruction on the kind of prayers that we should be offering.

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

What is the promise of Psalm 1?

• Those who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it, shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit. His leaf will not wither, but will prosper.

Meditate is an interesting word to use in the introduction to the prayer book of the Bible. Why was meditate the word that was used? What does it mean to meditate? What is meditative prayer?

From the best I can tell, there are two kinds of prayers.4

1. Calling Prayer. In this type of prayer, we lead the discussion. We set the tone. We pick up the phone and immediately start talking to God. We tell him about our day, we express our gratitude, we seek His blessings, we pray for others. We are calling Him. This certainly is the most common prayer we offer and really the main—if not only—form of prayer we teach in the church.

2. Answering Prayer. This is meditative prayer. This is prayer that lets Him start the conversation. We listen. We let Him direct our thoughts. We let Him guide our paths. We meditate on Him. This is meditation.

Commenting on this first chapter of Psalms, Tim Keller emphasized that the bringing forth of the fruit is for those who have the law and meditate on it. The promise is not for those who merely have the law. Having the law and not meditating on it is like a tree that merely looks at the water but doesn’t actually draw it up. A tree that isn’t nourished by the water. Meditation is the process by which we draw up the law’s living water.

So what does meditative prayer look like in practice? Interestingly enough, Latter-day Saint prophets are among the most meditative people in the Christian world.

David O. McKay wrote, “I think we pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. In our worship there are two elements: One is spiritual communion arising from our own meditation; the other, instruction from others, particularly from those who have authority to guide and instruct us. Of the two, the more profitable introspectively is meditation. Meditation is the language of the soul. It is defined as ‘a form of private devotion, or spiritual exercise, consisting in deep, continued reflection on some religious theme.’ Meditation is a form of prayer. . . . It is one of the most secret, most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.”5

Jeffrey R. Holland shared a story about President McKay that sheds light on his actual meditation practice. He said, “For some of (David O. McKay's) prayers, he would go into a darkened room, a private room with the curtains drawn, and he would kneel in the center of the room. Not on a chair and not against a bed. He'd kneel and say nothing. This is not at the end of the prayer, this is before the prayer started. He would say nothing for a matter of minutes until he felt like he was worthy to approach the throne of the Lord.”6

It seems as though President McKay engaged in meditative prayer as a form of preparation for the more common “calling” form of prayer.

Harold B. Lee also was adamant about meditation. He wrote, “I get up early in the morning … five o clock when my mind and spirit are clear and rested. Then I meditate. You can come closer to the Lord than you imagine when you learn to meditate. Let your spirits be taught by the spirit.”7

President Eyring engages in meditative prayer through engaging in visualization: “As I have matured, my experience with prayer has changed. The picture in my mind has become one of a Heavenly Father who is close by, who is bathed in a bright light, and who knows me perfectly.”8

C.S. Lewis dedicated a whole chapter of The Screwtape Letters to how the adversary tries to get us to not engage in meditative prayer. Screwtape writes to Wormwood, “He (God) is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position … and to human animals on their knees. He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion. But even if He (God) defeats your first attempt at misdirection, we have a subtler weapon. The humans do not start from that direct perception of Him which we, unhappily, cannot avoid. They have never known that ghastly luminosity, that stabbing and searing glare which makes the background of permanent pain to our lives. If you look into your patient’s mind when he is praying, you will not find that. If you examine the object to which he is attending, you will find that it is a composite object containing many quite ridiculous ingredients … I have known cases where what the patient called his “God” was actually located — up and to the left at the corner of the bedroom ceiling, or inside his own head ... But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it — to the thing that he has made, not to the Person who has made him … For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers ‘Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be’, our situation is, for the moment, desperate.”9

If you haven’t engaged in meditative prayer, start to. If you don’t practice visualizing God while praying to Him, start to. The scriptural promises are real and powerful.

Leadership

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

Mark 1:65

Jesus, the Perfect Leader10, had a meditative prayer practice. Presidents Lee and McKay weren’t coming up with new ideas. They were following in the footsteps of the Master.

• Matthew 14:23 – “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone.”

• Mark 1:35 – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

• Luke 5:16 – “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

• Luke 6:12 – “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”

• Mark 6:46 – “After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.”

• John 6:15 – “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”

Meditation and mindfulness are empirically proven methods in the fields of leadership, clinical psychology, and performance psychology. There are real spiritual and psychological benefits that attend these practices. I’ll share some more of those benefits in the Mental Performance section. I am a big fan of certain guided meditations. Below is one of my favorites, specifically to get in a leadership mindset, by meditating on Christ’s teaching to love others as yourself. I hope you’ll take the time to listen and engage.

Mental Performance

“(Phil Jackson’s) first season with the Lakers was when I was 21. And I dived right into meditation. I always knew the game carried a deeper meaning, more than X’s and O’s and strategy. It’s crazy to me that meditation is viewed as hokey. Just look at the people who’ve done phenomenal things. Do they meditate? Absolutely.”11

Kobe Bryant

In this section, I want to just share some of the scientifically proven benefits of having a meditation practice. First, consider these two statements by Kobe Bryant and Steve Jobs.

• “I meditate every day. I meditate for 10 to 15 minutes every morning. It sets me up for the rest of the day. It’s like having an anchor. If I don’t do it I feel like I’m constantly chasing the day, as opposed to being controlled and dictating the day.”12 - Kobe Bryant

• “You start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before.”13 - Steve Jobs

Since there are so many amazing resources for meditation out there, I will just be aggregating some from other sources here that I think will be helpful for you to have all in one spot.

• The Science of Meditation (Headspace). Basic idea: “With recent neuroscientific findings, meditation as a practice has been shown to literally rewire brain circuits that boost both mind and body health. These benefits of meditation have surfaced alongside the revelation that the brain can be deeply transformed through experience—a quality known as neuroplasticity … having a regular practice is associated with benefits to social aspects of our health, like boosting our mindfulness, empathy, and resilience. It can also help us regulate our thoughts so that we’re not so quick to judge, diminishing the potentially detrimental effects of stereotypes. In one study it was even suggested that meditation could make us kinder individuals, boosting our levels of compassion.” Put another way, there is scientific evidence that meditation boosts your ability to develop disciple-leader characteristics.

• The Mindful Leader. A semi-systematic review of 19 research articles published between 2000 and 2021 on the topics of mindfulness and leadership. Good article to read.

• Why Leaders Need Meditation Now More Than Ever. Great HBR article on the subject.

• The Many Benefits of Meditation (Headspace).

• Mindfulness Hurts. That’s Why It Works.14

The mindful are the ones who master the mental. It’s worth trying if you haven’t yet.

Discipleship

“A right faith is an excellent and valuable thing. But it is advantageous no further than it … leads us to live an holy and godly life.”1

Jonathan Mayhew

This is the doctrine of Christ: we exercise faith in Him and in return, He gives us access to His power.

The keyword being exercise.

Mere belief in Christ, devoid of exercising faith in Him,2 yields no power. Belief without faith is dead, or as James put it, “Faith without works is dead.”3

Even if you’re a believer, without the exercise of faith, you will go through life as if Christ hadn’t atoned for you.4 Why? Because you won’t have access to His atoning power. You will live, essentially, without God in the world.5 Your access to His power, love, and influence are readily available to you, but exercising faith is the process by which you gain that access, not through intellectual, passive belief.6

Exercising faith isn’t necessarily easy7, but it is very simple. It’s a choice. It’s a choice between being left to your own strength or living in the strength of God.8 This is the same God who created the world, the planets, and the galaxy. The same God who rose from the grave. The same God who knows all, has all power, and is eager to “give away the secrets of the universe”9, including the secret of how you can live in His power. Except He didn’t keep that much of a secret. He was very overt: “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."10

Leadership

“All of life is a series of daring explorations from a secure base.”11

David Brooks

At the core of leadership is lifting, building, and enabling others to the point where their base is secure. Then, once their base is secure, they feel like they can set off. Stephen Covey wrote about making investments into someone’s emotional bank account. This idea is similar. Every opportunity we have with someone else is a leadership opportunity. We can be complacent and apathetic towards them or we can actively lift, love, and treat them as Christ would. Each time you maximize those people-opportunities, you not only make an investment into the emotional bank account, but you strengthen the security of their base.

Think of someone as a boat and their base as a lighthouse. If their base is secure, or if their lighthouse is lit, they will be enabled to daringly explore. To go after their dreams. To do hard things. To fulfill the mission that God placed on their life. Each time you add to their base, it’s as if you are increasing the brightness of the lighthouse.

Neal A. Maxwell wrote, “None of us ever fully utilizes the people-opportunities allocated to us within our circles of friendship.”12 Though we don’t utilize them as we should, Christ always did. The disciple-leader works to close that gap.

Mental Performance

“He who invades the domain of knowledge must approach it as Moses came to the burning bush; he stands on holy ground; he would acquire things sacred. We must come to this quest of truth—in all regions of human knowledge whatsoever, not only in reverence, but with a spirit of worship."13

J. Reuben Clark

Let me emphasize one line from this J. Reuben Clark statement: “We must come to this quest of truth—in all regions of human knowledge whatsoever, not only in reverence, but with a spirit of worship.”

All means all.

What does it mean to approach life with a spirit of reverence and worship?

1. Approaching everything with a spirit of reverence. You revere and honor people and opportunities. What does this mean? One writer put it this way, “The word honor … my favorite definition in my study that I’ve come upon is to prize. Do you know what it means to honor someone? Oh sure, it means respect. It means recognizing the dignity of that person. But it means to prize.”14 Do you prize the person in front of you? Do you treasure the opportunity to learn, work, write, or whatever else it is you are doing that day?

2. Approaching everything with a spirit of worship. This means that you recognize that “all things unto (God) are spiritual”.15 “All things denote there is a God”.16 You acknowledge God in everything and you see God in everyone.17 Think about it. Jesus took upon Himself everyones pains, sicknesses, temptations, and ultimately, everything.18 That means when you see someone’s struggle, when you see someone’s joy, when you see someone’s anxiety, you are actually seeing Christ’s struggle, Christ’s joy, and Christ’s anxiety. During His agony, He literally experienced that exact scenario.19 If you approach everything with a spirit of worship, you can learn something about Jesus Christ from every single person and in any scenario you find yourself in.

This is how you should approach your life.

Discipleship

“My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify that the most important day in the history of mankind was the day when Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, won the victory over death and sin for all of God’s children. And the most important day in your life and mine is the day when we learn to “behold the man”; when we see Him for who He truly is; when we partake with all our heart and mind of His atoning power; when with renewed enthusiasm and strength, we commit to follow Him. May that be a day that recurs over and over again throughout our lives.”1

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Writer Jonathan Rauch (an atheist) recently published a book titled “Cross Purposes”.2 In it, he argues not only for why American democracy needs strong Christianity but argues that American democracy, stripped of Thick Christianity, is in danger.3

Thick Christianity? What’s that? In his book, Rauch identifies three different types of Christianity in what he calls Thin Christianity, Sharp Christianity, and Thick Christianity.

• Thin Christianity: “Thin Christianity is my term for when Christianity becomes secularized and it becomes a consumer good, a commodity — people just shop for churches and they like what they hear and they’re not really challenged in church. And the problem with that is that a lot of the benefits of belief to the soul and to the Republic come from taking it seriously and participating — joining with a community, giving of yourself to others — not just treating it as a consumer good … Because it turns out when religion, especially Christianity, when that becomes thin, people go elsewhere for their faith and for their sense of meaning in life. They go to politics. And those are terrible sources of values. They don’t sustain the Republic. They undermine it.”4

  • To summarize, Thin Christianity is so diluted that it blends in with the surrounding culture, becoming unrecognizable.

• Sharp Christianity: “This is a kind of Christianity that perceives itself increasingly as being at war with the culture around it. This is the Christianity that’s afraid that it’s losing its predominant cultural role in American society and the next election is the one that will end Christianity as we know it. And so it becomes smaller, and more and more paranoid and frightened about its future. And as it does those things, it also becomes more political.”5

  • To summarize, this is an “us vs. the world” mentality of Christianity. It’s coming from a place of scarcity. And while the scriptures do teach about the sins of the world and the need to protect ourselves against evil influences, making this your core paradigm through which you see the world and not Christ’s greatest teachings to love God and love your neighbor as yourself, sharpens your Christianity to a point that it’s unrecognizable from Christ’s actual teachings.

• Thick Christianity: This is a kind of Christianity that clings tightly to the teachings of Jesus Christ and embodies them. Thick Christianity is a disciple who admires, adores, and emulates the Savior. Their faith is embedded into their DNA. It permeates around them and is the filter through which everything they do passes through. How they view the world, politics, people, everything, is seen through the eyes of faith in Jesus Christ and a commitment to Him. Thick Christianity is “(seeing) Him for who He truly is … (partaking) with all our heart and mind of His atoning power … (and) with renewed enthusiasm and strength, (committing) to follow Him.”6

Where is your Christianity at these days? If you are able to recognize that it is feeling a little thin or a little sharp, change. The not-so-secret key to thickening your Christianity is simple: dive more into the teachings of Jesus.

Leadership

“There is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words.”7

James Clear

Scripture is clear on the power of your words:

• Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.8

• But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.9

• The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.10

• Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.11

• The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.12

• Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.13

• The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.14

If there’s anything to take away from these verses, it’s that the Lord has given you a gift. The gift of words, the gift of communication, and with that gift, immense power. Power to lift. Power to heal. Power to help. Power to change the course of someone’s life. What a tragedy to be given that gift only to take it for granted, use it unrighteously, or not use it at all. I hope you will use the incredible gift of words that God has blessed you with in the way that He intended for you to use it. To say what He would say if He were in your shoes.

Mental Performance

“Civilization isn’t built by pessimists."15

Naval Ravikant

Nothing, in fact, is built by pessimists. Elite minds and high-performers are not pessimists. Optimism is the barrier to entry into high performance. In Dr. Bob Rotella’s book “How Champions Think”, he wrote that optimism is the “first essential quality” of elite thinking.

In his opening chapter on optimism, he had an incredible insight: “While the correlation between optimism and success is imperfect, there is an almost perfect correlation between negative thinking and failure.”16

At least give yourself a chance to succeed at what you do. That chance hinges upon your optimism.

Discipleship

“We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters.”1

Joseph Smith

Here, Joseph Smith is attempting to describe Jesus Christ, who appeared to him and Oliver Cowdery at the Kirtland Temple. I use the word attempted because he uses simile and metaphor to describe each of Christ’s attributes. There are no mortal words that can actually describe what Joseph is seeing, so he does his best to describe Him in a way that would somewhat make sense to us.

• Under Christ’s feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber.

• His eyes were as a flame of fire.

• The hair of His head was white like the pure snow.

• His countenance shone above the brightness of the sun.

• His voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters.

Of course, Christ’s eyes weren’t actually fire. His voice doesn’t literally sound like a waterfall. But He is a resurrected, glorified, celestial God and we live in a telestial world. Just like Joseph struggled to articulate a description of Christ2, we cannot even begin to comprehend His glory. We cannot begin to comprehend His love, His joy, His kindness, His loyalty, or any of His attributes.

In a recent article by Terryl Givens, he explained hearing a young woman comment, “I fully expect when I meet the Lord he will be different than I imagined.”3

He described his reaction to this statement, saying, “What moved me was the tone behind her comment. Not fear that she had God wrong. Not disregard for the stakes or blithe acceptance of our limited light. She seemed, rather, to be expressing with hopeful optimism what one of the greatest early Christian teachers wrote: ‘For whatever it is that we are able to sense or know of God, it is necessarily to be believed that he is by many degrees far better than what we perceive him to be.4”

Whatever you believe or however highly you esteem Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, He is better than you think, He is holier than you can conceive, He is more perfect than you could even believe.

That is something to be deeply grateful for.

Leadership

“I’m counting on you to be consumed with conviction.”5

Jeffrey R. Holland

A Christlike leader has deep and equal amounts of clarity and conviction.

Performance psychologist Michael Gervais wrote, “Clarity is about your first principles. That’s foundational. Then, to live with conviction about your first principles, that’s special.”6

Your first principle is your personal culture7. These include your sense of identity, mission, and purpose. These are your core beliefs. The first question you have to ask yourself is about your personal culture. Do you have one? Do you have core beliefs? We all like to believe we do. But do you really?

Most people have neither clarity nor conviction. Gervais writes, “Most people’s first principles are to be accepted. To not be rejected by other people.”8 Because of this, they live to make the smallest ripple imaginable. They want so badly to not be judged, that they settle for making no impact either. They take counsel from their fears.

There is nothing quite as futile as seeing someone live in a conviction-without-clarity sort of way. There is nothing quite as sad and potential-wasting as seeing someone live in a clarity-without-conviction sort of way. In contrast, there is nothing quite as inspiring as seeing someone live with clarity and conviction.

Speaking to young disciples, Elder Holland said, “I’m counting on you to be consumed with conviction.”

This is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ for you. Living with clarity and conviction isn’t a matter of luxury or motivation. It’s a matter of obedience. It’s a hallmark of consecration.

Mental Performance

"Charity … thinketh no evil."9

Paul the Apostle

If we are to have the mind of Christ10, we must eliminate evil thinking from our minds. This is not easy to do. We have a negativity bias.11 Most of our internal chatter is negative and tends to be repetitive. The mind of Christ doesn’t have those thoughts.

Thinking no evil includes thoughts about ourselves and others. It also includes apathetic or light-minded thinking.12

One way to counteract evil thinking of any kind is to think of Jesus.13 Your mind can not occupy a true thought of Jesus Christ while at the same time thinking apathetically, or occupying an evil thought towards yourself or somebody else, regardless of how justified you think those thoughts are. Remember, Jesus knows you and that individual you have hard feelings for way more than you do, and He doesn’t have a single evil thought towards you or them. So why should you?

In a nutshell, the key to having the mind of Christ is to think more about Christ. How often do you take time to just think about Him? Try it this week.

Discipleship

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”1

Richard Sibbes

Jeffrey R. Holland echoed Richard Sibbes’ sentiments, just using different words. He wrote, “However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”2

Jesus Christ loves forgiving sins. Sometimes we might hesitate to approach Him because we are ashamed and feel that He won’t want to forgive us or that we aren’t worthy of His attention. Actually, according to Elder Holland again, there is nothing He loves more. There is nothing He would rather do.

“Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it.”3

If you’ve delayed repentance or a relationship with God because of feelings of guilt, shame, or any other feeling for that matter, you aren’t just delaying your peace and freedom, you’re keeping God from doing what he loves most about being God. This is what He lives for! This is what He sent His Son to suffer and die for. Your sin simply is no match for His mercy. He loves you too much, Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for you, and He delights too much in being merciful for Him to ever turn you away.

Leadership

“The least, the most inferior spirit now upon the earth … is worth worlds.”4

Brigham Young

What comes to mind when you think of the greatest man-made treasures of this world? Riches, empires, mansions, temples, you name it. This world is full of things of great value.

What comes to mind when you think of the greatest God-made creations? The mountains, the ocean, the sky, the planets. The wonders of the world.

You likely know this, but it bears reminding because how we act would signify that we so easily forget this truth: Every single person you have interacted with today is of greater value than those man-made treasures and God-made wonders.

I went to Niagara Falls a couple of summers ago. We were on this boat tour with hundreds of other tourists. We got really close to the Falls. We were all getting soaked. I, like the hundreds of others, looked on in awe of the Falls. They were majestic and powerful. Interestingly, had God—the Creator of the Falls—been on that boat, He’d have looked on in awe not of the Falls, but of the tourists. The tourists are His prize. The tourists are His treasure.

We live in a fallen world. Our natural eyes see the world through telestial lenses. Through the enabling power of Jesus Christ, however, you can upgrade to celestial lenses. Those are the lenses through which God views the world. Through those lenses, people take their rightful place in holiness’s hierarchy. “Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”5

Mental Performance

"The difference between good teams and great teams is the level of expectations and standards they hold themselves to."6

Geno Auriemma

A few simple formulas.

Low expectations + low standards = Poor performance.

Low expectations + high standards = Function-without-feeling performance. Passionless. No belief.

High expectations + low standards = Anxiety and frustration. Squandered potential.

High expectations + high standards = Elite performance.

Ultimately, having low expectations or low standards will always yield poor performance. You don’t even need to have both, just having a low grade for one of the two is enough to undo you. Said differently, your performance can only be as high as your standards and expectations. You need both.

Discipleship

“And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say: Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.

“But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out.”1

Alma

I believe that vegetables are good for me. I also don’t eat vegetables that frequently. Given that premise, do you think my belief in vegetables actually does anything for me? Am I any better off than someone who doesn’t even believe vegetables are good for them?

No.

Similarly, believing in God doesn’t do much for you.2

Let me explain.

Yale Psychologist Paul Bloom3 has published research on religion and how it affects human flourishing. His research found that the positive effects of one’s religiosity have nothing to do with one’s belief in God but everything to do with one’s worship of God. It wasn’t faith, rather it was the exercise of faith, that moved the needle.4

This is what Alma explains in this passage.

Here’s a scenario. Let’s say you have a rock-solid belief in God. Now, let’s say you decide to take a year off from reading your scriptures, praying, and worshipping Him at church.

Just like taking a year off from eating veggies is unlikely to change your belief that veggies are good for you, chances are you’ll still believe in God after a year away from spiritual habits.5 What you will have lost, however, is access to God’s power.

If you don’t consistently access His power by engaging with the doctrine of Christ, when the hard times come, you’ll be no better off than someone who flatly doesn’t believe in God.6

Both believer and non-believer have neglected their faith in Christ. Neither have access to His power.

The decision to nourish/exercise your faith is really a choice between Whose power you want to rely on. Do you want to go through the daily challenges of life relying on your strength? Or do you want to go through life in the strength of the Lord?

The Lord doesn’t give strength to those who claim to have faith in Him. He gives strength to those who exercise their faith in Him.7

Leadership

“We become whoever would have saved our younger self.”8

Unless you are uniquely fortunate, you’ve struggled to gain clarity on your calling in life. At some point, everyone has. Maybe you felt aimless in your youth, maybe you are having a mid-life crisis, or maybe in your old age you just feel lost. If you’ve ever been through one of these seasons, you know how challenging it is. You might even feel inclined to resign to the fact that your life just isn’t that meaningful after all.

But that’s a lie. And for the disciple-leader, it’s a particularly dark lie.

You have a calling on your life. You have a specific purpose. You have a work from God that He has called you to do. The greats internalize and embody this. They operate out of calling, not convenience. You can feel their conviction oozing out of them. It’s contagious.9

In fact, it’s hard—if not impossible—to have conviction if it doesn’t come from a place of calling. Conviction flows downstream from calling. Conviction can’t be manufactured, and neither can calling. Calling—like identity—is not created. It’s discerned.

Have you discerned your calling in life?

If so, how is it going? Do you treat it with the seriousness God intends?10 Have you consecrated yourself to it?11

If you haven’t discerned your calling yet, that’s okay. It can be hard. It’s helpful to have resources to help guide you in this endeavor.

I’ve found the two statements below to be a helpful guide in steering people into finding their calling from God.

1. You become whoever would have saved your younger self.

2. You become whoever did save your younger self.

It’s really that simple. This is the pattern most people who have discerned their calling have followed.

Think of your favorite teacher growing up. They certainly became a teacher—and became a great one—because either 1) The education system failed them and they were determined to right it or 2) They had a teacher who changed their life.

What about a father? If you had an amazing father it’s probably because either 1) Their father failed them and they determined that their children wouldn’t know the pain of an absentee father or 2) Their father changed their life.

If you want to find your mission and purpose, the very work that God sent you here to accomplish, ask yourself those questions.

1. What kind of person would have saved my younger self?

2. What kind of person did save my younger self?

This is how God consecrates our experience for our gain. By turning our lowest lows or highest highs into our life’s calling.12

Mental Performance

“Don’t let what you are afraid of keep you from what you were meant for.”13

Bob Goff

In The Liturgists meditation “Vapor”, they have an opening monologue that attempts to calm the listener’s fears and trepidations by appealing to their sense of reason. The transcript contains a welding together of the cosmic and eternal perspectives (something I’ve written about here). I do not necessarily advocate for or agree with all of the meditation’s positions. There are some notions brought forward in this meditation that aren’t congruent with revealed doctrine.14 However, there is value in internalizing aspects of this perspective.

Listen or read the transcript below.15

Most scientists estimate that the universe is 13.77 billion years old, that the earth is 4.54 billions years old, while human beings have only been on earth for less than 200,000 years. To put those numbers in perspective, if you stretched out your arms and your entire wingspan was representative of earth′s geological history, and then you took a nail file and took just a little bit off of the edge of your fingernail, you would have just wiped out all human history.

There's this Carl Sagan quote about a photo of earth taken from Voyager on its way out to deep space that echoes the sentiments of the Kohelet, the Teacher, in the ancient wisdom book called Ecclesiastes. Here′s the quote: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That′s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

So here we are, on this pale blue dot. Tiny specs of dust coming into existence for a moment. Hurling through space and time, only to flicker back out after a few moments. These moments, these are all we have in this life. We work, we laugh, we cry, we make love, we write books, we build empires, we wage wars. We often try to ignore the fact that these moments are temporary. That all our empires and the gross national product, our art and our literature, our $300 designer jeans, all of our knowledge and technology, creativity and legacy is erased. It′s all going to flicker out at some point with everything else.

Vapor.

Everything and everyone is a vapor. Here for a few moments, and then gone. This sobering thought can be depressing, Or it can be absolutely freeing.

We can either go the way of many around us and ignore this fact, medicating and numbing ourselves in avoidance of the truth of our humanity; or maybe there's another way: We can embrace it. We can recognize our humble place in this universe. We can recognize the silliness of human arrogance and empire. And perhaps as a result, we can learn to appreciate and fully experience the moments that we have as the gifts that they are.

Think about when you were young, do you remember getting worried and stressed about things that seemed so important at the time? Now how do you feel about those things? The issues that felt like life and death, like how the kids didn′t give you a fair turn on the playground that day? How do you feel about that now? Do you laugh about it? Does it seem silly?

So what are you worried about today? Do you really think it is any less silly than what you were worried about as a child?

Your job? Vapor.

Your apartment? Vapor.

Your school loans? Vapor.

Everything and everyone you love and worry about—it's all Vapor.

Are you worried about being unique or important? In our society we worship our individuality, we love to talk about our fingerprints and snowflakes and how every individual is unique. But, have you ever looked at a snowflake? I mean, they′re all kind of the same. Back the camera up a little bit, and you are nothing but a human being, a spec of dust in time and space, not all that distinguishable from the 7 billion other specs of dust swirling around you. How many of our moments on the pale blue dot do we waste worrying and stressing about the Vapor? The Kohelet, the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, shows us the vanity of human toil and worry.

Another Teacher came and taught about the Vapor like this: "Come to me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

So what are you so worried about? What causes you stress? Because it's going through the dirt like everything and everyone else. It is Vapor, mist, smoke, Hevel. This doesn′t have to be depressing, in fact, it might even be liberating. Finitude, after all, is actually what makes life sweet. Christmas time can be such a wonderful and magical time of year because it only happens once a year. Parents treasure their moments with their young children at home precisely because they know those moments won't last forever.

So take a breath. Recognize your frailty. Recognize that the things that feel so weighty and wearisome in the back of your mind right now, are nothing but Vapor.

Feel your breath. Recognize your lungs keeping you alive without your ability to make them work or not. Your heart is beating. Your cells are working together to keep you alive. And it's all magical and mysterious and beautiful. Life on planet earth is a gift, and you only get it for as long as you get it. And then the match gets blown out.

So set your hearts, not on things of earth, not on the vapor, but let go. Fully open your heart to both the Gift and the Giver. The Mystery. The Beauty. That in which we live and move and have our being. That in which we call God- The Oneness who holds the Vapor together- who somehow bring meaning into the meaningless.

Esoteric? Yes. A little abstract? For sure. Doctrinally sound?16 Not exactly.

But there is great value in embracing aspects of this cosmic perspective. Life is way too short and the universe is much too large to let fear hold you back from accomplishing the work God has given you and becoming the person God intended you to be.

If you’re holding back, now is the time to change.

Discipleship

“If you ask, ‘Why is this happening?’ no light may come, but if you ask, ‘How am I to glorify God now?’ there will always be an answer.”1

J.I. Packer

Here is a list of other questions that will frequently—if not always—yield an answer from God.

• What is Your will?

• How can I exercise more faith in Christ?

• How can I repent more completely?

• How would You have me be an instrument in Your hands to accomplish Your purposes?

Why would these questions yield answers from God? What kinds of prayers yield answers? What types of prayers don’t?

The scriptures teach: “Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings … We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart.”2

Here is a critical truth to understand: There are some prayers that God can’t answer.3 There are some things we ask for that God can’t grant.

Many Christians falsely believe that God can do anything. That’s actually not true. When Jesus traveled to Nazareth, His hometown, the New Testament records, “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.”4 Their unbelief stymied His power in their lives. He could not bless them. Why couldn’t he? Because blessings are wrought by faith.5 “And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.”6 “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.”7

Why can’t Jesus grant certain blessings despite one’s unbelief? Because it is impossible for Him to break His word.8 Jesus is bound by His word.9 If He broke His word, He would cease to be God.10

Don’t waste time worrying about why God isn’t answering a prayer that He couldn’t answer—or wouldn’t even receive11—in the first place. Instead, learn what God is eager to bless you with and pray for those things.

Kevin Pearson wrote, “Prayer is not a negotiation process. It is an alignment process. We don’t move God to our point of view. Prayer is less about changing our circumstances and more about changing us. It is about seeking His will and asking for His help to do what we need to do. When we align our will with Heavenly Father’s will, answers and spiritual power will flow more freely. Following this pattern allows us to pray with faith.”12

To summarize, what are some principles of prayers that God will answer?

• You must have real intent of heart. Don’t even bother praying if you don’t have that to begin with. God won’t receive it.13

• Your prayer will require work.

• You pray in Christ’s name. This means your mind is the mind of Christ. Your wishes and desires are the wishes and desires of Christ. Your prayer represents a prayer that Christ Himself would pray. It would be helpful to read Christ’s prayers to get a good understanding of this.14

• Your prayer isn’t a negotiation. It’s an alignment. You don’t order God around. You submit to His ways.

Perhaps the best way to better understand how to make your prayers highly answerable is to ask God for help. You can ask Him, “How do You want me to pray? What do You want me to pray for? What do You want me to communicate to You? What do You want to communicate to me?”15

God will answer those prayers, and He will teach you how to pray.16

Leadership

“Happiness is found in doing.”17

Napoleon Hill

In 2020, two psychologists conducted a study trying to answer a basic question: Are humans happier when they focus on their own desires and needs or when they focus on doing something for others?18

Arthur Brooks summarized this study’s method and findings. Here is his summary:

“We generally think about the trade-off between self-care and caring for others as one between feeling good and doing what is morally superior. If you take the afternoon off and go shopping, you’ll enjoy it. If instead you volunteer at a local charity, you’ll miss that fun but be a better person. Obviously, this trade-off has limits; you need to take care of yourself to help others, and helping others can be fun for you. In general, however, this is how we see the ‘me versus others’ choice.

“The researchers questioned whether there really was a trade-off at all. They wondered if, just maybe, focusing on others created more happiness for you than self-care did. To investigate this idea, they divided 263 participants into three groups, each with a different set of instructions.

1. Moral Deeds Group: Today, we would like you to do at least one moral deed for others. By ‘moral deed for others,’ we mean doing something that will benefit another person or a group of others. This could be donating to charity, picking up trash (to help the community), giving money to a homeless person, helping someone with their work, giving someone a compliment, giving assistance to a family member, or showing kindess to a stranger. Any act that benefits another person—either directly or inderectly—would be considered a moral deed.

2. Moral Thoughts Group: Today, we would like you to think at least one moral thought for others. By ‘moral thought for others,’ we mean thinking about another person or group o fpeople in a positive way, thinking good thoughts on their behalf, thinking lucky thoughts for them, praying for them, hoping they succeed, or thinking about how much you care for another person or group of people. Any thought that is positive toward another person would be considered a moral thought.

3. Treat Yourself Group: Today, we would like you to do at least one positive thing for yourself. By ‘positive thing for yourself,’ we mean doing something that will benefit you. This could be buying yourself a gift, getting yourself a massage, taking yourself out to a movie, spending time with a friend who will make you happy, giving yourself a break to relax, or enjoying a delicous meal. Any act that benefits you—either directly or indirectly—would be considered a positive thing.

“The three groups followed their instructions, and recorded their well-being across eleven dimensions each evening for ten days. At the end, the researchers compiled the results. Not shockingly, in some ways all the strategies were beneficial; for example, all three felt more satisfaction. But in most ways, the results weren’t even close. The Moral Deeds Group reported higher scores on a range of well-being measures than the Moral Thoughts Group, and both reporterd higher scores than the Treat Yourself Group. Those caring for others actively felt greater purpose in life and sense of control, while others did not. They were also the only ones who felt less anger and social isolation.

“The end results were clear … focusing less on yourself and your desires will make you happier…

“Focusing on ourselves is the most normal thing in the world. Yet this doesn’t help us get happier. While it isn’t always easy, working against this natural tendency gives us relief from the sitcom on loop in our heads that is our daily me-focused lives. With knowledge and practice, an outward focus on life brings major happiness rewards.”19

There is both happiness and leadership power in an outward-focused person. Leadership doesn’t exist where an inward focus dominates. A perenially inward-postured individual will never be a leader until they learn how to turn outward consistently and naturally. You become a leader to the degree that the appeal of your “better angels”20 to turn outward converts from an irritant to a default position.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus, the perfect Leader,21 is both the most joyous Being to have ever lived22 and the most outward-postured.23 These qualities are directly correlated and you can’t have one without the other. They are a package deal.

Mental Performance

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”24

Marcus Aurelius

Plain English is a podcast hosted by writer Derek Thompson25. On July 26th, he published an episode with writer Greg Lukianoff26 titled, “Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Progressives?”27

Below I will share pieces of the conversation between Thompson and Lukianoff. While politics does color this conversation, my purpose is not political. I hope that any political points can fade into your mind’s periphery and instead, you can focus on the mental performance aspect of what’s being discussed.

Thompson: One of the most interesting facts about the electorate and American politics in general, I think, is this happiness gap between progressives and conservatives. From several reports there has been a happiness gap between liberals and conservatives28. Maybe I should say progressives and conservatives to distinguish from classical liberals. And it seems like this gap is accelerating.

Lukianoff: It’s been quite consistent that there’s always been somewhat of a gap between progressive and conservative self-reports of happiness, but it’s gotten much more severe in the past 12 years or so.

Thompson: In your opinion, is the best way to describe this gap as a gap in happiness, well-being, contentment, or is it a gap in negative conditions like depression and anxiety?

Lukianoff: I’m perfectly fine calling it a happiness gap, but to say it more colloquially, it’s more of a mood disorder gap … anxiety and depression are the key ones that we’re interested in here. All the evidence points to there being a substantial gap in anxiety and depression between progressives and conservatives, with progressives experiencing substantially more depression and anxiety than conservatives.

Thompson: Can you help us nail down when it is exactly that this happiness gap between progressives and conservatives started to expand? Because it seems to me from the data that it was a relatively steady gap for several years and only in the last few years has there really been this yawning of the gap. How would you characterize the timing of that divergence?

Lukianoff: … You start seeing a divergence accelerating around 2012, but definitely it’s gotten a lot bigger in the past three or four years.

Thompson: You have a theory about what is causing this gap, and the name of your theory is reverse CBT. I think before we talk about reverse CBT, we should probably talk about what CBT is.

Lukianoff: All my interest in this comes primarily from some realizations I had dealing with my own suicidal depression in 2007 and recovering from it in 2008 … As I was recovering, I started doing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is … the best studied intervention for anxiety and depression ever invented other than, you know, pharmeceuticals. (CBT) seems deceptively simple, but essentially the realization was that anxious and depressed people have more negative exaggerated chatter in their head. There are names for these different types of negative exaggerated chatter. They’re called cognitive distortions. Some of them are exactly what they sound like. Catastrophizing, for example. So when something relatively minor that’s bad happens to you, your brain immediately screams at you, you know, like ‘This is because the world is fundamentally broken.’ And it’s like, okay, I should talk that down a little bit. Or you think you have a bad date and you just kind of assume, ‘I’m going to die alone. This person obviously hates me.’ That’s actually called mind reading. I’m going to die alone, that’s called fortune telling. The overall tone of this is catastrophizing. Some cognitive distortions include over generalization, binary thinking, which is everything is either zero or one. Everything’s either fantastic or a disaster. Blaming, discounting positives, (which is) the idea that essentially you create a narrative around there is no upside. Everything is negative. And what’s amazing about (CBT) is that it’s not a question of understanding it intellectually. You have to actually do the work and get in the habit of talking back to your exaggerated catastrophizing thoughts. And by talking back to them, what I mean is the actual exercise of (going) through this process of writing it down, labeling it in terms of what kind of cognitive distortion it is, and then trying to reframe it. Now with the power of positive thinking, but with the power of rational thinking. Being like, ‘Am I really going to die alone? Is this really a sign that the world is broken? Or is it something more mundane? As in I didn’t think that date went very well and now I’m kind of sad about it.’ This was transfomative for me. I used to get pretty severe depression almost every year. I barely get them at all anymore.

While I was studying CBT, I was working on campuses and I was seeing situations in which it seemed like the adults in the room—the residence hall directors or some of the administrators who interact with the students the most—seem to be modeling behaviors that included catastrophizing. Definitely a ton of overgeneralizing, a lot of binary thinking. There wasn’t a cognitive distortion I’m familiar with that I didn’t see modeled for younger people….

But right around 2014, I started noticing a lot more students showing up on campus demanding censorship, but using medicalized justifications. Essentially this speaker coming to campus is a catastrophe and it will be mentally harmful to people if they come and people will not be able to recover from it … Unfortunately things got much, much worse after that.

Thompson: Let’s talk about reverse CBT. You’ve mentioned a couple key psychology terms, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing. I’m just going to provide some quick definitions to those before we talk about reverse CBT and why you think this is a phiulosphy that has taken root on the left specifically. Catastrophizing is basically this idea that something happens to you and you spin out the worst possible version of that story. You get a C in Economics, you tell yourself this means you’re going to fail out of college, you won’t be able to find a job, you’ll be a failure, living on the street. It’s this story that spins out of the single fact of the C in Economics … (This is) spinning a story of maximal negativity … that becomes all consuming. So what is reverse CBT?

Lukianoff: Reverse CBT is that process of implicitly, or sometimes even explicitly, telling people that they should catastrophize, that they should over-generalize, that they should engage in emotional reasoning.

The rest of the conversation is fascinating and worth a listen. Again, the purpose of sharing this has nothing to do with politics. Lukianoff’s theory, based on data, is that progressives, particularly young progressives, tend to be more susceptible to reverse CBT-induced sadness, but they don’t have a monopoly on it. It doesn’t mean conservatives aren’t susceptible as well. Humans everywhere engage in harmful reverse CBT practices regardless of political ideology.

Think about your life. Think about the exaggerated negative chatter in your mind. Where does it exist for you? Yes, there is real power in positive thinking.29 But forget positive thinking for a second. Are you even thinking rationally? Do you engage in, or allow yourself to be influenced by people who persuade you to engage in reverse CBT?

Below are some of the most common cognitive distortions. Which ones are you most susceptible to? Don’t be enticed by the lure and “easiness of the way”30 of reverse CBT. Do the work to label and call out your cognitive distortions, and then argue against them and provide evidence for why they’re not rational.

• Black-and-white (or all-or-nothing) thinking: I never have anything interesting to say.

• Jumping to conclusions (or mind-reading): The doctor is going to tell me I have cancer.

• Personalization: Our team lost because of me.

• Should-ing and must-ing (using language that is self-critical that puts a lot of pressure on you): I should be losing weight.

• Mental filter (focusing on the negative, such as the one aspect of a health change which you didn't do well): I am terrible at getting enough sleep.

• Overgeneralization: I'll never find a partner.

• Magnification and minimization (magnifying the negative, minimizing the positive): It was just one healthy meal.

• Fortune-telling: My cholesterol is going to be sky-high.

• Comparison (comparing just one part of your performance or situation to another's, which you don't really know, so that it makes you appear in a negative light): All of my coworkers are happier than me.

• Catastrophizing (combination of fortune-telling and all-or-nothing thinking; blowing things out of proportion): This spot on my skin is probably skin cancer; I'll be dead soon.

• Labeling: I'm just not a healthy person.

• Disqualifying the positive: I answered that well, but it was a lucky guess.31

Your life is what your thoughts make of it. High performance, and a great life in general, can’t exist where truth doesn’t abide. Truth doesn’t abide in a mind full of cognitive distortions. If you’re burdened by these, free yourself and do the work necessary to train your mind in both positive and rational thinking.

Discipleship

“If your Christianity sees kindness as weakness and compassion as compromise and treating with dignity those with whom you disagree as collaboration with the enemy, you have utterly lost touch with Christ.”1

Beth Moore

One of Satan’s most clever and common distortions of truth is the extremely popular idea in our culture that boldness, brashness, and assertiveness are justified—and even sometimes necessary—to project strength and power. Another truth-distortion is that being indifferent or even apoplectic to those who are different, even very different, is acceptable, because it shows fidelity to principle. Another is that to demonstrate loyalty to God, you mustn’t stop at merely dismissing sin, you must also dismiss the sinner.

But is this what Christ taught? Is this what Christ modeled?

The following are important questions to use as a self-reflection.

• Do you see kindness as weakness?2

• Do you see compassion as compromise?3

• Do you see treating with dignity those with whom you disagree as collaboration with the enemy?4

If there is any hint of “yes” in your answer to these questions, it is time to repent. It is time to get back in touch with Jesus Christ.

One of the best ways I’ve found to reconnect with Christ and to reestablish clarity on what discipleship—as He defined it5—should look like is to prioritize honoring others.

Jesus said, “I, the Lord … delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.”6

Jesus delights in honoring people.

What does it mean to honor someone?

Seattle-based pastor Judah Smith taught what it means. He said:

“Are you practicing the sacred act of worship called honor? Are you an honoring person? Are you honoring those around you? Are you honoring the relationships you are priveleged and gifted to have? Are you honoring your own body? Are you honoring the day that is a gift in front of you? Are you honoring the King? Are you honoring God? Are you walking in honor? …

“Romans 12:10 says, ‘Be devoted to tenderly loving your fellow believers as members of one family. Try to outdo yourselves in respect and honor of one another.’7

“From the best I can tell, there is only one area the New Testament Jesus-follower is called to be competitive. We are to compete in honor. The text says, ‘Try to outdo yourselves in honor.’ I’m supposed to honor you more than you honor me…

“The word honor here, my favorite definition in my study that I’ve come upon is to prize. Do you know what it means to honor someone? Oh sure, it means respect. It means recognizing the dignity of that person. But it means to prize. Outdo one another in prizing each other.

“Do we treat each other like a prize? Do we treat each other like we are walking, talking trophies of God’s grace? Do you look at me and see a trophy? Do I look at you and see a trophy?

“I believe in honor. I believe that every human being is the distinct design and prize of the Architect of the ages and should be treated accordingly.”8

Jesus honored you when He volunteered to take your place.9 Jesus honored you when He, seeing you10, suffered and atoned for every sin, every weakness, every shortcoming, and every affliction that you’ll ever experience.11 He honored you when He died and rose again. He honors you today. This moment. Right now. As you read this, you are on His mind.

He prizes you.

He cherishes you.

He loves you.

He honors you.12

Leadership

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Abraham Lincoln

Do you / would you enjoy having enemies?

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume your answer is “no”. But does your behavior reflect your answer?

We have many enemy-fostering behaviors. Even if we desire to eliminate enemies, our approach typically makes them stronger. Debating, arguing with, and trying to outsmart or “own” your enemies/opponents will only push them further into enemy territory.

Following the conclusion of the Civil War, Lincoln was chastised by an elderly lady. She called him out for being too soft on the Southerners and not calling them “irreconcilable enemies who must be destroyed.”13

Lincoln replied, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”14

With a mindset like that, it’s little wonder why Abraham Lincoln—who presided over the United States at its most polarized time—is regarded as its most unifying president.15

One Lincoln biographer wrote about his leadership philosophy.

“Rather than upbraid slaveowners, Lincoln sought to comprehend their position through empathy. More than a decade earlier, he had employed a similar approach when he advised temperance advocates to refrain from denouncing drinkers in ‘thundering tones of anathema and denunciation,’ for denunciation would inevitably be met with denunciation, ‘crimination with crimination, and anathema with anathema.’ In a passage directed at abolitionists as well as temperance reformers, he had observed that it was the nature of man, when told that he should be ‘shunned and despised,’ and condemned as the author ‘of all the vice and misery and crime in the land,’ to ‘retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.’

Though the case be ‘naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel,’ the sanctimonious reformer could no more pierce the heart of the drinker or the slaveowner than ‘penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him.’ In order to ‘win a man to your cause,’ Lincoln explained, you must first reach his heart, ‘the great high road to his reason.’ This, he concluded, was the only road to victory—to that glorious day ‘when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth.”16

The following is one of many examples of Lincoln embodying his philosophy.

“In 1855 Abraham Lincoln, then a lawyer in Illinois, was asked to participate in a patent infringement case involving McCormick, of reaper fame. Lincoln had been given a $400 retainer and was told he might actually argue the case, so he studied and went to Cincinnati for the trial. A lead lawyer in the case was a man named Edwin M. Stanton—a brilliant Pittsburgh lawyer.”17

Stanton, on first meeting with Lincoln, asked the man who Lincoln was planning on representing, “Why did you bring that d——d long-armed Ape here … he does not know anything and can do you no good.”18 Lincoln stayed at the same hotel as Stanton and the other attorneys, but he was never even asked to eat or to confer with them. Lincoln went home feeling insulted and “roughly handled by that man Stanton.”19

Despite Lincoln feeling insulted and offended by Stanton, he listened to Stanton during the case and admitted he was a highly skilled lawyer.

“Unimaginable as it might seem, after Stanton’s bearish behavior, at their next encounter six years later, Lincoln would offer Stanton ‘the most powerful civilian post within his gift’‚—the post of secretary of war (Yes, secretary of the Civil War). Lincoln’s choice of Stanton would reveal … a singular ability to transcend personal vendetta, humiliation, or bitterness. As for Stanton, despite his initial contempt for the long-armed Ape,’ he would not only accept the offer but come to respect and love Lincoln more than any person outside of his immediate family.”20

Years later, when Abraham Lincoln was pronounced dead, Horace Porter noted, “Stanton’s grief was uncontrollable. At the very mention of Mr. Lincoln’s name he would break down and weep bitterly.”21

John Hay wrote a letter to Stanton. In it, he remarked, “Not everyone knows as I do how close you stood to our lost leader, how he loved you and trusted you, and how vain were all the efforts to shake that trust and confidence, not lightly given and never withdrawn.”22

Perhaps this is why Jesus said to love your enemies. It is neither soft nor weak to love your enemy. Anybody can hate their enemy. It’s our default disposition. It takes a remarkable level of moral courage and strength to love your enemy.

Do you want to eliminate your enemies? Then love them.

Mental Performance

“You are not afraid of failing. You’re afraid of being seen failing.”23

James Pierce 

Performance Psychologist Michael Gervais has coined the acronym “FOPO”. Fear Of People’s Opinions.

He writes:

“If you want to be your best and perform at a high level, fear of people’s opinions may be holding you back.

“Think about a time when you were extremely anxious — say, before standing up to publicly speak, raising your hand in a big meeting, or even walking through a room of strangers. The reason you felt small and scared and tense is you were worried about social disapproval.

“Our fear of other people’s opinions, or FOPO as I call it, has become an irrational and unproductive obsession in the modern world, and its negative effects reach far beyond performance.”24

One of the most effective and clarifying self-reflections is to ponder, “What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?”

A better question, one more grounded in reality, is, “What would I do if I knew nobody would care if I failed?”

Social Scientist Arthur Brooks wrote, “The ironic thing about feeling bad about ourselves because of what people might think of us is that others actually have much fewer opinions about us—positive or negative—than we imagine. Studies show that we consistently overestimate how much people think about us and our failings, leading us to undue inhibition and worse quality of life. Perhaps your followers or neighbors would have a lower opinion of you if they were thinking about you—but they probably aren’t. Next time you feel self-conscious, notice that you are thinking about yourself. You can safely assume that everyone around you is doing more or less the same."25

One more quote to hammer this point home. This from Jerry Seinfeld.

“Everything that you’re worried about is going to be gone like that (*snaps his fingers). The people that are criticizing you, they are going to be gone, you’re going to be gone. All this hand-wringing, worry, and concern over, ‘How are people viewing me?’, ‘Someone said something bad about me’, and you get so upset about it, it’s wasted time and energy. Your only focus should be on getting better at what you’re doing. Focus on what you’re doing, get better at what you’re doing. Everything else is a complete waste of time.”26

Take a second. Imagine what you’d have the permission to do and the life you could live if you stopped allowing the opinions of people you never really see anyways hold you hostage. Think about it. Do you feel that? Doesn’t it feel great?

Now go.

Discipleship

“Envy is inversely correlated with self-examination. The less you know yourself, the more you look to others to get an idea of your worth.”1

Lawrence Yeo

I think Yeo’s idea is brilliant and insightful.

And incomplete.

“The less you know yourself, the more you look to others to get an idea of your worth.” How do you come to know yourself? You change day by day, hour by hour, even minute by minute. You are constantly undergoing microevolutions of the self.2 You’re constantly becoming a different person, so how can you know the real you?

Joseph Smith answered that question. “If men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves.”3

Read that statement with your name substituted in. “If (insert your name) does not comprehend the character of God, (insert your name) does not comprehend himself/herself.”

With that in mind, if I were to edit Yeo’s teaching for completeness, I’d say, “Envy is inversely correlated with God-examination. The less you know God, the less you know yourself. The less you know yourself, the more you look to others—instead of God—to get an idea of your worth.”

It’s also worth pointing out that envy is an interchangeable word here. Check this out.

• Fear is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Anxiety is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Worry is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Insecurity is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Anger is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Contempt is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Apathy is inversely correlated with God-examination.

• Guilt and shame are inversely correlated with God-examination.

I could go on. You get the point.

All patterns of negative thinking are inversely correlated with God-examination. God-clarity is paramount for self-clarity. Without God-clarity, there is no self-clarity. Without God-clarity, your sense of self will never fully materialize. Your self-understanding would be best described as shallow. Superficial. Surface-level.

Do you want a flourishing, deep, eternally satisfying sense of self? Do you want to know and love yourself as well as humanly possible? Then I have an invitation for you.

“And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever.”4

Leadership

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”5

William Butler Yeats

Think about your life experience. You have probably seen and can identify with this statement. In many ways, this paints an accurate picture of our culture. Whether it be religion, politics, social media, or something else, there is a silent majority filled with what Yeats would call “the best” and an outspoken minority filled with what Yeats would call “the worst”.

Two writers have helped me cogitate this idea. I think both are worth sharing here. One comes from a moral perspective. The other from a religious perspective. Both, ultimately, come from a leadership perspective.

First, from The New York Times’s David French.

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.” William Butler Yeats wrote these words in his poem “The Second Coming” in a different time of violence and fear. The year was 1919, Europe was still reeling from World War I, a deadly influenza pandemic was sweeping through the world, and the Irish war of independence was underway. Yeats was writing from the heart of a storm, a storm that would grow indescribably worse in 20 short years.

I think of Yeats’s words often. By “center,” he’s referring not to some kind of moderate political middle but rather to the moral center of civilization. When the moral center gives way, nations fall.

I thought of those words again when I saw the blood on Donald Trump’s ear on Saturday. Now is the time for America’s moral center to rise up and declare — with one voice, neither red nor blue — “Enough.” We either recover our sense of decency and basic respect for the humanity of our opponents, or we will see, in Yeats’s words, the “blood-dimmed tide” loosed in our land.

The cultural conditions for chaos are created by a lack of courage and character. Yeats lamented that the “best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” And already, we’ve seen the passionate intensity of the worst on display. Members of one extreme faction have claimed the shooting was an elaborate ploy to generate sympathy for Trump. At the same time, members of the opposing extreme faction have attempted to claim that President Biden is responsible for the attack.

How does the center hold? Democrats and independents must stand in solidarity with Republicans, grieving for the dead, praying for the wounded and giving thanks that Trump survived with only a minor wound. Virtually every leading Democrat has condemned the violence with a loud voice, and Biden has both condemned the violence and spoken to Trump directly.

All of this is good and necessary, but it is not sufficient. Each of us has our own role to play, in our own circles of influence, either big or small. There has rarely been a better time to love our enemies, to pray for our nation and to remember — during one of the most fraught political campaigns in generations — that each and every one of us is a human being, created in the image of God.6

Second, from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

I do not agree that “the best lack all conviction” because you, seated before me robed and hooded, and a host of good people across the earth like you prove otherwise. I believe you to be the very best, and I am counting on you to be consumed with conviction.

But alas, I fear that in too many cases “the worst [of our day] are full of passionate intensity.” No child should have to go to school fearful that they won’t live to see their parents that evening. No citizenry should have to live with a system—pick a nation, any nation, or put a pin in a world map almost at random—where corruption is rampant, where chaos is the order of the day, and where statesmanlike character, elevated (to say nothing of elegant) speech, and dignified personal behavior are seemingly alien concepts. No young people your age—or any age—ought to face conditions in so many places where poverty and abuse (including sexual abuse), malnutrition and disease, and human trafficking and terror are still the rule rather than the exception for too many people, including too many children.

Well, I don’t want to dwell on anything negative today, and you might say it has always been so down through time, and maybe it has. But it doesn’t have to be! So go out there and light a candle. Be a ray of light. Be your best self and let your character shine. Cherish the gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. The world needs you, and surely your Father in Heaven needs you if His blessed purposes for His children are to prevail. You have entered to learn. Now go forth to serve and strengthen. If correcting all the world’s ills seems a daunting task, so be it. Go out there and be undaunted. If we cannot look to you to change the world, tell me to whom we should look.7

Mental Performance 

“Doubt your doubts…”8

Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

One of the greatest mysteries of the human mind is how and why we deal with self-doubt and imposter syndrome in the way we do.

Marcus Aurelius astutely observed, “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”9

We care more about others opinions, yet, we often only believe their opinion of us if it’s negative. If they tell us something positive, we almost have this automatic tendency to doubt their sincerity. This comic strip explains my point.

Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant outlined how he thinks about this paradox:

• Others believe in you

• You don’t believe in yourself

• Yet you believe yourself instead of them

“If you doubt yourself, shouldn’t you also doubt your low opinion of yourself?”10

Stop doubting yourself. Start doubting your doubts.

“I now believe that imposter syndrome is a sign of hidden potential. It feels like other people are overestimating you, but it’s more likely that you’re underestimating yourself. They’ve recognized a capacity for growth that you can’t see yet. When multiple people believe in you, it might be time to believe them.”11

Discipleship

“There will be three effects of nearness to Jesus: 1) Humility 2) Happiness 3) Holiness.”1

Charles Spurgeon

It can be hard to gauge just how near or far you are from God. Spurgeon here gives a good measuring stick. Let’s talk about them.

Humility

When Jesus visited His followers in ancient America, The Book of Mormon records the ensuing encounters:

• “The whole multitude fell to the earth.”2

• “The multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was He … (and they) did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him.”3

• Nephi “bowed himself before the Lord and did kiss his feet.”4

In modern times, apostle Orson F. Whitney had a similar experience. He wrote about a dream in which He saw the Savior. He recorded, “(I) ran out from behind the tree, fell at His feet, clasped Him around the knees, and begged Him to take me with Him.”5

Consider how Joseph Smith felt about Jesus, “When we reflect upon the holiness and perfections of our great Master, who has opened a way whereby we may come unto him, even by the sacrifice of himself, our hearts melt within us for his condescension.”6

Does your heart melt when you think of Jesus? Does the very thought of Him make you want to bow down in worship and wonder? Are the affections of your heart placed upon Him?7

Everyone thinks humility has to do with how and what you think about yourself. In reality, however, humility has little to do with how you view yourself but everything to do with how you view God.

Happiness

The nearer you get to Jesus, the happier you’ll become.

One of the clearest examples of this is from the Book of Mormon. Lamoni’s father, the King of the Lamanites. He was the King. He had money, power, prestige. He had all this world had to offer.

Yet, something was missing.

His life changed when he met messengers of God. They taught Him truth and he felt God’s power. After experiencing the fruit of the spirit,8 something drastic changed in him. He asked the messengers, “What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken? Yea, what shall I do that I may be born of God, having this wicked spirit rooted out of my breast, and receive his Spirit, that I may be filled with joy, that I may not be cast off at the last day? Behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy.”9

The King had learned a lesson—from hard experience—that most struggle to grasp their whole lives. You can gain the world, and never find happiness.10

The great actor Matthew Perry articulated what the King must’ve felt before finding God. In his autobiography, he wrote:

• “I found myself getting to my knees, closing my eyes and praying. I had never done this before. ‘God, you can do whatever you want with me, just please make me famous.’ Three weeks later I got cast in ‘Friends,’ and God has certainly kept his side of the bargain—but the Almighty, being the Almighty, had not forgotten the first part of that prayer as well. Now, all these years later, I’m certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer.”

• “I couldn’t believe what I was about to say, but I said it. I said, ‘You know what, Craig? It doesn’t do what we all thought it would. It doesn’t fix anything.’ (What a sobering thought for a 26-year-old who had only ever wanted fame and had only just realized that fame hadn’t filled the holes at all. No, what had filled the holes was vodka.) Craig stared at me; I don’t think he believed me—I still don’t think he believes me. I think you actually have to have all your dreams come true to realize they’re the wrong dreams.”11

Will Smith talked about the same idea. He said, “The material world is utterly incapable of providing lasting happiness. You have to get to the ends of the things and still be miserable to realize it. People talk about rock bottom. There’s a corresponding place called cliff top, where you wear out everything in the material world. It is an absolute abyss when you realize that there’s nothing else in this world to reach for to make you happy.”12

You’ll never find genuine, authentic, and deep happiness from anything in this world. That only comes from drawing nearer to Christ.

Holiness

The nearer you get to Jesus, the holier you become. The Holy Ghost has a sanctifying effect on those who draw near. You become markedly different, vibrant, full of life, and whole.

You become like Jesus.

“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing . . . it is irresistible.”13

Leadership

“Peacemakers are not passive; they are persuasive in the Savior’s way.”14

Neil L. Anderson

What does it mean to be persuasive in the Savior’s way? 

The Lord revealed, “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

“By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—

“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.”15

Jesus—the most powerful and influential Being to ever walk the earth—here gives His principles of power and influence. His guide to persuasion.

• Persuade with long-suffering (or patience)

• Persuade with gentleness and meekness

• Persuade with genuine love

• Persuade with kindness

• Persuade with pure knowledge, without hypocrisy or deceitful tactics

This is how the most persuasive Being in the universe does it. This is how He goes about changing hearts and minds.

One of the most frequent, yet misguided patterns of behavior that individuals and even world leaders engage in is to try to persuade in ways antithetical to Christ’s way. There are divine laws that govern the power of persuasion. Attempting to persuade or influence in any way other than God’s does not work. It never will. It violates divine law. You can compel momentary and fleeting changes in behavior through fear, force, and anger. But you can’t change hearts and minds that way.

Love is the Lord’s way of persuasion. Love is what people respond to. If you want to persuade, you have to show love.

Mental Performance 

“I’d treat every practice, every day like it was the Super Bowl.”

Tom Brady 

Tom Brady’s daily mission and purpose were clearly defined: become the best quarterback he could be. Every day he woke up on fire with purpose. He treated every practice, every game, every day like it was the Super Bowl.

Is your personal mission and purpose clearly defined? Is it something you pursue daily? Do you even think about it daily? Weekly? What if you approached your mission and purpose with the same clarity, intensity, and passion as Tom Brady pursued his? What if you treated each day like it was the Super Bowl?

Do you have that level of regard for your mission? Do you feel that convicted by your purpose?

If not, change. Treat your days with the value they deserve. Treat your purpose with the reverence it deserves (which is certainly a higher purpose than playing football).

Or are you going to let someone take the game of football more seriously than you take your purpose?

Have some self-respect.

Discipleship

“It's impossible to have met the real Jesus and be indifferent. You either bow down in wonder or go away offended.”1

Tim Keller

Consider the effect Jesus had on those who encountered Him. 

• Peter, on first impression of Jesus, left his dream career to follow Him.

• Those who disagreed with Him weren’t satisfied until He was killed.

• The Nephites, when Jesus appeared to them, fell at His feet and worshipped him.

If you feel apathetic towards Jesus, it’s not because He isn’t real or because He wouldn’t impact you similarly. It’s because you haven’t really met Him.

Those who meet the real Jesus are never the same.

Leadership

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”2

Robert A. Heinlein

There are so many different definitions, perspectives, and dimensions of love. I think Heinlein’s definition, though simple, is pretty encompassing. What does love feel like? Desiring another’s happiness. What does love look like? Behaving in a way that is most beneficial to their happiness.

When love motivates your behavior, others’ happiness headlines your decisions.

Mental Performance 

“You have to want the lifestyle, not just the outcomes.”3

James Clear 

Inconsistency is the most common vice in the world. If it isn’t right now, it has undoubtedly affected you at some point. The scenario is all too familiar: You have a dream or a goal, but you haven’t achieved that dream or goal. The reason?

Inconsistency.

You want to get in shape but don’t consistently eat healthy. You want to grow closer to God but don’t consistently exercise faith in Him. You want to make new friends but don’t consistently put yourself out there. Inconsistency holds you back from high performance.

So, why is consistency so hard? What is inconsistency’s root cause?

James Clear wrote, “When you choose the benefits of an action, you also choose the drawbacks. If you want to be an author, you can't only choose the finished novel and book signings. You are also choosing months of lonely typing. If you want to be a bodybuilder, you can't only choose the fit body and attention. You are also choosing the boring meals and calorie counting. You have to want the lifestyle, not just the outcomes. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense being jealous. The results of success are usually public and highly visible, but the process behind success is often private and hidden from view. It's easy to want the public rewards, but also have to want the hidden costs.”

An inconsistent person, ultimately, desires a comfortable lifestyle over a dream-driven lifestyle. It’s understandable. If your goal is to write a book, for example, that is going to take a massive amount of time and work.

Or will it?

Perhaps your problem with consistency isn’t so much that you prefer comfort or don’t want a purpose-driven lifestyle, but rather an incorrect perception of what a purpose-driven lifestyle requires.

Tim Urban wrote, “And something I try to remind myself is, someone who is writing three hours a day, five days a week, but really focused—the phone is away, deep focused writing, 15 hours a week—it’s shocking how much you can produce. Add those weeks together and 40 weeks later, you have a book. The difference between the prolific writer and then self-loathing person who doesn’t write anything is that one writes for 15 out of their 112 waking hours a week. The other writes for 0 out of their 112 waking hours. So 1/7 vs. 0/7. 6/7th of those two people’s lives are the same. People who can’t put something together have this daunting assumption that the prolific writers is fundamentally different. That they’re working constantly, all the time. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s consistency.”

Summarizing the two key points:

• If you don’t want the lifestyle, you’ll never be consistent enough to see your desired outcome. 

• When you zoom out, consistency just isn’t as daunting. 1/7 vs. 0/7.

DISCIPLESHIP

“An ounce of obedience is better than a ton of learning.”

Charles Spurgeon

The following parable was taken from this sermon by Noah Herrin.

"Imagine if I was still living at home, and my dad, before he left for work, said, 'Noah, before I come home from work today, I need you to make sure all the trash is taken out.'

"Imagine that's what he told me. And I said, 'Okay, Dad, I got you.' Then my dad comes home 8 hours later, walks in the door, and all the trash is still in the trash cans. Imagine he comes in and he's like, 'Noah, why is the trash still in the trash cans and not outside?'

"Imagine if I responded like this, 'Well Dad, you see, I got your message. In fact, I memorized your message. Take out the trash before I get home today. I also memorized it in a more relevant translation. I memorized it. I even put some essential oils on for a little while and I thought about the message that you gave me, I tweeted about the message that you gave me. I even found a podcast that was all about the Nashville (where he's located) sewage system and how you should take the trash out, and what they do with the trash. It was amazing!' And my dad is standing there in front of me and says, 'But you didn't do anything!"

Do you see how silly this is? 

This is a parable about Heavenly Father and us.

One writer put it, "We are a lot more educated than we are obedient." In the church that I'm a member of—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—we talk all the time about ministering. We study it, we have talks and lessons on it, we devise plans about the best and most effective ways to do it. But do we do it?

Remember what James taught, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do" (James 1:22-25, NIV).

Or as he put it another way, "Faith without works is dead."

LEADERSHIP

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

James 1:1

Many people don't realize that James, the author of the book of James, is the biological half-brother of Jesus. They had the same biological mom—Mary.

The book of James is one of the best leadership texts you'll find anywhere. And it all starts with the first verse. "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." James was very popular. He had a lot of notoriety in Jerusalem. Not only was he the brother of the most famous figure in the history of the world, but he was a leader of the church in Jerusalem. He had a lot of identities, yet, he wanted to be known for his servanthood to God.

The standard of leadership exemplified by Jesus was hallmarked by servanthood to God and its natural fruit—service to others.

1. "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30).

2. "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38).

Where there is no service, there is no leadership. Or as one writer put it, "If service is beneath you, leadership is beyond you."

James grounded his identity in the one thing that makes life most joyous: servanthood to God. Today's culture would have you ground your identity in the one thing that makes life most empty: servanthood to self.

So how can you approach servanthood to God and avoid servanthood to self

Consider this teaching from John Pingree: "We can approach decision points in our lives—like what to study, what to do for work, or where to live—in the context of helping others." I think you can extend that further. Filter big life decisions through the lens of "How can I best serve God and others?" Filter daily decisions through the lens of "How can I best serve God and others?"

Your answer to these questions will always yield the highest, happiest, and holiest fruit. Living your life based on your answers to these questions is how to be a leader in the way that Christ defined leadership—through service.

MENTAL PERFORMANCE

“By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”

 Alma 37:6

Have you ever considered how short life really is? You probably have. Have you ever observed it visually? 

This is what your life looks like in weeks, months, and years. (Taken from Tim Urban).

Kind of crazy to see it like that, right? Getting a clear picture on how short your life is might clarify some things. It might make you want to prioritize things you've been putting off, and put off things you've been prioritizing.

I love what Michael Crichton wrote, “A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there. … And at the end of your life, your whole existence has that same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.”

Think of the circles already filled in on your life's calendar. What story do those circles tell?

I recently came across a model of how to think of my time that is very helpful. This is from writer Tim Urban, on how he frames time to motivate him to exercise more:

"After the past few years of barely doing any exercise, I started a routine working out M-F morning for 30 min. It's awful and I hate it. But here's how I've been framing it in my head: There are ~225 waking half-hour blocks every week, each of which will be experienced separately by me. Which is kind of like 225 Tims, each experiencing a half hour of life each week.

"The difference between being someone who exercises and someone who doesn't only affects 5 of those Tims—in both cases, the other 220 are chilling out. Because those 5 Tims are willing to suffer, the other 220 Tims all get to feel better about themselves, feel and look healthier, and not experience any 'it's really bad that I never exercise' guilt.

"A bit weird way to think about it, I know, but it has been motivating for me. When I'm miserably working out, I remind myself 'this is making life better for 220 other Tims this week."

What have you been procrastinating doing? What changes do you need to make in your life? For Tim Urban, it was exercise. What is it for you? Framing time in this manner—225 waking half-hour blocks per week—will help you in your efforts to be consistent. 

Disciple-Leadership: Jesus-led. Lead like Jesus.