Putt Your Way to Success

My Mission President is a great teacher. The other day, he was helping a group of missionaries learn how to better set goals for themselves. He came up with a great analogy that had to do with sports, so it's awesome. It makes sense though. As I have tried to apply it in my own life, I have seen improvement in the goals I set.

President is a golfer. I've golfed a little, I started to get in to it before I left Utah. He related goals to golf. When many golfers arrive at the course, they head over to the practice green to fine-tune their technique and get a good warmup before beginning their round. I have been victim of this, but he pointed out how many golfers will start far out from the cup at the very beginning, then they proceed to practice extremely long shots--with little success. What a experienced golfer will do will start close, then work their way out as they make more and more putts.

Goal setting is the same. We cannot start from so far away that we have little or no hope of accomplishing it. We must set ourselves up for success. As we work on what we need to do to progress, sticking to the fundamentals, we reach that distant goal, our confidence is boosted, and we are able to help others along the way.

Look at the pros. Many can nail those shots, even when the stakes are high. Why? They worked towards their goal, by beginning small. Tiger Woods started as a small little boy with a play golf club in his hand, I don't need to name a few of his successes in his life. He's slipped up, many do.

I am convinced of the fact that if we apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ, those goals not only become reality, but they are long lasting. We need not fall into the ways of the world as we become successful. Heavenly Father has given us tools, such as the Book of Mormon, to help us along the way. They have worked for me better than anything, and will for you to.

That Was Easy

Ever been to Staples? How about have you seen a Staples commercial? They nailed me hook, line, and sinker, with one of their advertising schemes. They created the 'Easy Button'. The easy button, on the commercials, makes all the problems go away. It is pretty sweet. A group has a project due and needs to make a huge number of copies, one of them pulls out an easy button, presses it, and presto! Their job is done. When I recently went to a Staples for some regular office needs, I saw they actually sold these little bad boys. Done. I am now the owner of an easy button.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do everything it does on tv. I've tried. I really, really, wish it would make some of the problems I have go away (who wouldn't!), but that is just not the way that the cookie is crumbling. I've often asked why? Why can't there be an easy button? After thinking about that question for a while I found that though we may not have an easy button to make problems disappear, we do have a pretty sweet tool box to use.

Unfortunately, I do not think there will ever be a button that will make things go away, life just isn't about that. If there was, what would be the point? This time we call life is for us to figure out how to follow. Following God is what we're here for, even though we can't see him. So I told you about a tool box, this box is filled with some pretty sweet stuff. Tools I have found helpful in my life have been scriptures, prayer, and going to Church. All three very basic, but vital. It's like the hammer, nail, and saw in things.

I know that this life is for us to prepare to meet God. He wants every single one of us to return back to Him. He has no set number and there are no reserved seats. That's why there isn't a button, but a tool box. We have to take the many things he gives us and go to work, use them, and see how they help us return to live with Him. He didn't send broken tools either. He only sends His best. After using those tools time and time again, we to can say, 'that was easy'.

Juggling

I just went through a crash course of juggling. Why? A friend of mine told me to. I don't even remember how it came up, or why, but I did it. It was tough. Juggling is harder than it looks (which is surprising because it looks pretty dang hard to me). I didn't have very long to figure it out either, but I took a jab at it. Some lessons I learned are worth mentioning.

First, I had a good teacher. Elder Ben Winter was mine. He can juggle like a clown (there might be more to his past than some of us might know). He was good at giving me tips, and didn't let me give up, because I sure wanted to. We have great coaches in life that want us to succeed, but none more than our Heavenly Father.

I learned you have to start slow. One at a time. Throw up one and catch. Then do two, then three, then four, etc. Don't move on until you get it down. You can't just decide to learn and start throwing balls up in the air at the same time. That really stuck out to me because right now I have fifty million things I have to do. It's hard to balance the many new responsibilities and still fulfill my old ones at the same time. Learning to juggle put it in a real life example of taking your time and handling it one at a time.

Being patient and calm will make or break you. If you throw one ball too far, you have to recover. When I would do that, I would panic, which would make the next ball off and it continued in a downward spiral resulting in me dropping all of the balls on the floor. We can adjust when life throws us loops and causes us to make changes on the fly.

Little things in life can reveal to us the tender mercies of the Lord in our lives. What can you learn from today?

See more council from one of the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, L. Tom Perry, here!