BECOMING A BETTER ME

There was a time during my teaching days when object lessons were extremely popular. It came to the point that if a class was held without an object lesson as part of the day’s activity, you felt like something was missing.

One of the object lessons I remember was taking an egg which had had the ends of the shell pricked with a pin and the stuff we eat blown out. The shell was left intact and completely hollow. After a lot of histrionics, in front of the class, a volunteer was requested to have the egg busted upon their head. If no volunteer came forth an election was held. The volunteer/elected class member was always relieved when only a few shell fragments were needed to be brushed out of their hair and they were not left with a gooey egg shampoo. The lesson to be learned from the object was that it is what inside which makes the difference.

The French learned this lesson early in the Second World War when the Germans easily breached their impenetrable Maginot Line and found that France’s center was very vulnerable and easily conquered.

Bruce R. McConkie was fond of calling what is commonly named the parable of the SOWER from the Savior’s teachings, the parable of the SOILS. He pointed out that the sower would cast his seed upon all kinds of soils, but what was yielded was dependent upon the type of soil it landed upon.

During our lives we will have many types of seeds thrown at us some will be good and some will be bad. What effect they have upon us will be determined by which seeds we allow to take root. Ultimately, it is what we have in our center which determines what we control in our lives and what we allow others to control.

I would like to suggest some possible keys to becoming the type of soil where good seeds will flourish and bad seeds will be cast out.

IMAGINATION

Develop preemptive problem solving abilities by spending some of your pondering time imagining problematic situations and developing possible solutions which can be stored in your memory and called upon when the problem arises in real time.
Imagine what you wish to become and start acting as if you are already that person.
Pick a good model of who you wish to become and start patterning your thoughts, words and actions after that model.

DE-HYPNOTIZE

Stop letting the negative comments of others determine who you are, what you are becoming and how you feel about yourself.
Stop letting the flattering comments of others determine who you are, what you are becoming and how you feel about yourself.
Stop letting other people’s opinions determine friendships.
Stop letting your outward shell determine the worth of self.
Stop letting the outward shell determine the worth of others.

RATIONAL THINKING

There is no relationship between having failed at something and the success of future attempts in the same arena. Remember, Babe Ruth never let leading the league in strikeouts determine whether his next at bat would yield a home run.
More growth comes from remembering the actions which yielded success than even brief thoughts about a failed attempt. As a golfer I know that harboring thoughts about a missed shot will have negative consequences on future attempts, while thinking about the shot which was nailed increases the chance of successful future attempts.
Concentrating on the task at hand brings about better and faster results than drifting in and out of other problems while trying to complete the one in front of you.

DEVELOP A SUCCESS MECHANISM

We were all created to be successful. We all have a success mechanism built into our beings. Listen to it and let it work for you. Trust in the truth that Heavenly Father doesn't create junk.
Time spent worrying about failure is fruitless.
Time spent developing success is fruitful.
We can diminish or increase the usefulness of our success mechanism by our attitude.

Somewhere back in time, probably when object lessons were all in vogue, I came across a story whose author has been lost into that maze where most of our words go. The story meant much to me then and more to me now, so I share with you a brief summary of the tale and some of the concluding words.

The tale speaks of a man whose choices had led him to sleeping in the gutter and eating the dregs from garbage cans. He was met by a rich man who would not give him silver nor gold, but only the words which were the key to his success. “Go and find ‘THAT SOMETHNG’ and when you‘ve found it come to me.” Since I remember most stories which make me cry happy this one obviously leads to a great change in the man who once slept in gutters. I will share with you some of the concluding words of the story, as they have great relevance to my Thought for this week.

“It is the power of the inner man, the fuel of the soul machine. It is the one thing necessary. We are all born much alike…
And then we begin to live, animals all. Until we wake ‘THAT SOMETHING’ of the soul, we live as horses live. We bear on our muscle those that have found ‘THAT SOMETHING!’ And we bear them on up the mountain, to take their places among the masters of men.

‘THAT SOMETHING’ lies dormant in every soul until aroused. With many it sleeps until the last great sleep. Sometimes it does not wake until man stands tottering on the border of the grave. Sometimes it is found by the child playing by it’s mother’s knee. Some have sneered, and called it luck. Luck is but the fleeting smile of Fortune.

‘THAT SOMETHING’ IS AN AWFUL FORCE!

A man’s success depends alone on ‘THAT SOMETHING.’ ‘THAT SOMETHING’ of his soul. Abraham Lincoln found it when a lad. It warmed the cold floor on which he lay and studied. It added light to the flickering glow of the wood fire that he might see to read. It spurred him on, and on, and on. It made the man! It can make YOU!

If you will but wake ‘THAT SOMETHING’ within your soul that now lies asleep – if you can do this…”

Little do I believe that man’s worth or success is measured by his accumulated mountain of minutia or the number of subjects beneath his scepter, but they will be deemed successful who daily strive to become a better ME. It demands a regular convincing self-talk about the majesty of souls including the worth of my own.