Reaching Our Goals

Reaching Our Goals
- talk by Grandpa

Each of us has certain desires or needs, greatest of which is the desire for exaltation with our Heavenly Father. Yet, I’m, sure that each of us feels frustrated and often thinks that this goal is beyond our reach.
The Lord said to Moses, ”This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Have you ever stopped to consider that this is also our individual work and glory to gain this immortality and eternal life by being obedient to the things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do?
But how can we really be obedient? Obedient to the point of obeying all of our Father’s laws and commandments?

I really believe that each of us is asking a simple question. “How can I strengthen my will power so that I can do the things that I would like or ought to do?”
Undoubtedly each of us often thinks that we would like to really live all of the commandments. You know the feeling! You make a resolution. But how do you know your going to stick to it? That’s what I’d like to discuss today and give you a few special rules to establish in your life. And these rules not only apply to the desires of gaining eternal life, but to all the in-between goals of this life.

You know, you can do anything you really want to do. Let me repeat- YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU REALLY WANT TO DO.
When Sir John Hunt stood at the foot of Mount Everest, he did not expect to reach its summit by some sort of magic or in one leap. He had mapped his climb by stages, one day at a time. Each day he ascended as high as he had planned for that day. The day two members of his team- Hillary and Tenzing- finally stepped up to the summit was the climax of many days, and the last step was the top one of many climbing steps.
What we are setting out to do is much more spectacular and sometimes just as arduous as climbing Mt. Everest, but we apply the same principles. There is no magic or sudden leap to reach our goals. We advance step by step.

What is step #1? Make sure you want it enough.
A well-known man once announced that he would like to be a United States Senator from his state. His friends immediately swung into action to get him before the public. They arranged for all sorts of meetings before all sorts of clubs and associations.
But he started to pick and choose. He wanted to take the ones that were convenient, and to avoid the ones that were not. He wanted what you might call a comfortable campaign.
He soon had no campaign at all. It ended when one of his close advisors made the comment, ”Fred, you’ll never be a Senator. You don’t want it badly enough!”
We often say that a man can get what he wants. We should add one word. Any man can get what he wants if he wants it enough!
Take a look at what you say you want. You set a goal. How much do you want it? When you want anything badly enough that you go after it with all that you have? This is the simple and practical principle behind winning the will. You can see this principle at work everywhere and at all levels of purpose.
Let a man become sold on the idea of some achievement which will bring him fame and fortune, and he will hold to it come hail or high water. When Cyrus Field started to lay the first transatlantic cable, Lord Clarendon said to him, “Suppose you don’t succeed? Suppose you make the first attempt and fail- your cable is lost in the sea- then what will you do?” Field answered, ‘Charge it to profit and loss and go to work to lay another.”

Now come back to your own wish. Do you want it enough?
Think it through until you are convinced in your own mind why it is important to you, and benefits you will derive from it.
You are now at the first big moment of this exercise. Pause a minute to make sure you are starting right. The steps to be taken are linked like a chain. No one of them stands alone. You can strengthen your will power only if you take all steps in order.
You started out by saying that you would like to do the thing you have set your wish upon. You have examined this desire of yours and found out why it arose in you and what it can do for you. It should now mean enough to you so that you definitely and firmly desire to do it.
You say to yourself, “I will do it.”
You say this sincerely and with your whole heart. You mean it. You give yourself a mandate. You do all this because you want to. You are sold on the idea that this is something you want enough to go after it. You have taken the first step- Make sure you want it enough.

#2 Believe you can do it. Sounds like a quotation from a pep talk. You have a right to say, “You tell me-‘believe I can do it’, but how do I get this faith in myself?” That’s the key question of this second step.
Frank Kingdon, famous personnel consultant, tells this story. “Some years ago a young man presented himself at my door in Boston. His clothes were threadbare and his shoes cracked. Poverty was written all over him. My first thought was that he wanted a handout. But there was something about him that immediately drove away this idea. I invited him in, and began to talk to him.
“I’m going to be a doctor,” he said. “I wondered if you could help me get a job to pay my medical school expenses.” He might as well have said that he was going to buy The Boston Light. He had arrived in Boston that morning. He had less than five dollars in his pocket. He did not have a change of clothes. His shoes were in such bad shape that I forced him against his will to take a pair of mine.
“I explained to him how long it would take for him to get a medical degree, and how much it would cost. With what tact I could summon, I pointed out that the whole idea was fantastic. I suggested alternatives that might be within his reach.
He listened patiently and courteously. He was as respectful as he could be. But my words made no breach in his mind. He wanted to be a doctor. He believed he could be a doctor. A doctor he was going to be. And that was that.
With admiration bordering on astonishment I saw that young man put himself through medical school, marry in the process and come out with honors.”
When a man once becomes genuinely convinced that he can do what he wants to do, doubt can find no corner of his mind in which to lurk. There is no room in it for thought of failure. He assumes success and goes after it with all the assurance in the world.

The psychological secret is this. You can think only one thought at a time. You cannot think success and failure at the same time. Prove this to yourself:
Try for the next two minutes not to think of the word hippopotamus. Go on, try it! Don’t think of hippopotamus. No good? It’s not surprising. Nobody can do it. There is only one way not to think about it. That’s to think of something else.
Name the books of the Old Testament, or the prophets before Moses, or the presidents of the Church since Joseph Smith. Stop—were you thinking of hippopotamus? Of course not, you were thinking of something else.
You can think of one thing only at a time
Now, you know what you want.
You know why it is important to you.
If it is important enough, you can do it.
Put this idea firmly into your mind. Then steer by it as a pilot steers by his compass. Hold it in your mind and doubt will have no chance to enter your thoughts.
Build up your belief in yourself.
Fill your mind with thoughts of success.
Get started- Assume you are succeeding.
Make sure you want it enough.
Believe you can do it.

Now you are ready for step three.
Take one step at a time.
Begin with a simple idea.
You can perform only one act at a time.
Keeping yourself going comes down to keeping yourself going through your next thought, and your next act, your next five minutes, your next hour.
Looking at it from the other point of view, it means not yielding to the next impulse to turn aside and quit. These impulses come one at a time. You overcome them one at a time. Do you believe that you can keep the resolution you have made to the Lord for the next 5 minutes? Do you believe you can resist your next impulse to quit? You have answered “yes” to both questions. Very well, you have already said, “I believe I can.”
Two children were in swimming. The girl, seven years old, could not swim, but was using an inner tube to keep afloat. It sprung a leak, filled with water, and carried her down. The boy, nine years old, swam to her, and managed to get her on his back, and started to swim back with her. He got her to the shore. The little girl, telling the story afterward, said that every time he thrust out his arm to take a stroke, she heard him mutter to himself, “I think I can, I think I can.”
He brought her in one stroke at a time.
Believing that you can do anything comes down to believing you can take the next stroke, believing you can control yourself for the next 15 minutes, believing you can hold your will for the next hour.

The Chinese have a saying that the longest journey begins with the first step. This is the step that turns your face in the direction you want to go and gets you started.
We can follow up the Chinese saying with the further that, no matter how long the journey; it consists of taking one step after another. When you get down to it, we are only applying the same principle we applied in believing in yourself. We agreed that we could think only one thought at a time. What we are saying now is that we can perform only one act at a time.
If we are going on that journey we mentioned, there is only one immediate next step. Does that step take us nearer the goal? We can’t go forwards, then backwards, or forwards and sideways and expect to make progress. Each single step we make either advances or retards us. One minute at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time will get you from where you are to where you want to be.
Remember, you just take one step at a time.
An eager young man said, “I wish I could learn to speak in public, but somehow I can’t seem able to get to my feet.” His friend said to him,” You may not be able to make a speech, but I’m sure that you can make a motion. At the next meeting of your club, make the motion to adjourn. Then at the next meeting make another motion. Get used to hearing your voice saying once sentence in public. No matter how bashful you are, you can get one sentence out. Then you will get two.”
You make speeches one sentence at a time. Build yourself up as a speaker one sentence at a time. You are not going to be a Winston Churchill overnight. But here’s news to you. He wasn’t either. His maiden speech in the House of Commons was no great shakes. He was nervous, fighting his natural speech impediment, and knowing everybody there was cm0paring him with his famous father. But he made that one speech. The man whose voice rallied a nation in its finest hour was one who had come speech by speech from that faltering beginning to superb oratorical power.

You’ve taken these steps:
Made sure you wanted it enough.
Believed you could do it.
Took one step at a time.
Now you are ready for step 4:
Put yourself on the spot.

When Jack Dempsey fought Carpentier at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in New Jersey, one of the boxers in the preliminary bouts was a fellow who had some reputation as a pugilist (boxer) in the Marines. The sportswriters who mentioned him at all wrote him off as a ringman of little promise. The truth of the matter was that he had hurt his hands, and a boxer with brittle hands is not for the big time.
Unless, of course, he does something about his hands. This is precisely what this man did. It so happened that he had decided to become heavy weight champion of the world.. He wanted this enough to do what he had to do to get there. He had unbounded faith in his ability to get there. He took the first step. He bought two rubber balls and put them in his pockets. Day after day he took those balls, one in each hand, and squeezed them for five minutes at a time every time he had the chance, for fifteen minutes when he could, for longer if the opportunity came. Always persistent. Never letting up.
At the same time he worked regularly at punching the heavy bag- lightly at first, then more and more aggressively as his hands became stronger. When he decided that his hands could stand it, he put himself on the spot. He signed up for a professional bout. He won it. He added to his exercise, not only strengthening his hands, but building his whole frame. Now he put himself on the spot again. He fought an opponent higher in the rankings. He won.
He went on with this career, putting himself on the spot with the leading contenders for the title and disposed of them. In 1926, he defeated Dempsey for the heavyweight crown. He defeated him again in the return match, and retired as the undefeated champion. (Gene Tunney)
Unless a man exposes himself to defeat periodically, as Gene Tunney or any other boxer must, he cannot prove to himself or the world that he is a champion. As you go after what you want, you can give yourself that extra test periodically by putting yourself on the spot. You strengthen your will and your power by creating situations in which you have to call on it for extra effort.

You are now ready for the last step:
Achieve the habit.

Do anything once and you will do it more easily the second time. Do it twice and the third time you will do it more easily. Keep on doing it again and again, and you will find yourself repeating it without any conscious effort at all. You will be doing it automatically. You will have formed the habit.

There comes the day in every boy’s life when he shouts from his bicycle, “Look, Mom, no hands!” There used to be a teacher at Harvard who was a sort of pied piper among professors. His students literally followed him out of the classroom and down the street to continue the discussions he started. His name was William James. In the university catalog he was listed as a professor of philosophy and psychology. His true vocation was to demonstrate what a human being really could be like.
James put this whole business of forming habits into the language that makes it clearest for many people. He wrote, “ The greatest thing in all education (which he referred to as the training for the living) is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. “
For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and as carefully guard against growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous.
In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habit you aspire to gain.
What he is really saying is that we should do the things that take us toward our goal over and over until it becomes easier to do them than to do any of the things which would divert us from what we really want. James would explain it like this:
Hundreds of years ago some Indians up in the hills decided to trek to the seashore. They went down in the spring and returned in the autumn. The next year, they decided to repeat the trek. They followed the same path, for though they had passed that way only once, they could detect in the way the new grass was growing where they had trodden the old grass the year before. The third year the path was even plainer.
Then white men built roads from the hills to the sea. They followed the same path. Today, when you drive to that seashore your follow the highway which once was the path of a single trek.”

Just as the feet of the Indians left their mark in the wild grass, so every sensation, and action leaves a trace in the billions of cells of the brain. We are spinning our own fates, says James, good or evil, never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar.
Habit protects men, increases their skills, adds to their pleasure, and improves their social relationship in all kinds of situations. Watch your habits develop. The only way to acquire a habit- the habit of will power, the habit of success- is to keep doing it until it becomes habitual.
As you set yourself one goal after another, and train your will to reach them, you are strengthening your will power as a whole. You do not train and develop your muscles by saying, “I want strong muscles.” You do it by having your muscles work at it. The same principle applies to will power. You will not develop will power by saying, “I am going to be a man of decision.” You do it by making one decision after another, by reaching one goal after another. The will holding itself to one purpose- that of reaching the final goal.
As you form one good habit at a time, you become a man of efficient habits. As William James has put it in a famous sentence, “Sow an action and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” But the series begins with that first single action.
God lives, and we through will power can sow an action, sow a habit, sow a character so that by obedience to His laws and commandments we can reap the destiny of being as He is. This is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.