Care of the soul requires ongoing attention to every aspect of life. Pursuing divinely appointed responsibilities in righteousness, unity, and equality will prepare us to meet God. In his infinite love and mercy, our Lord has provided a harbor where, through repentance, our barnacles fall away and are forgotten. With our sous lightened and renewed, we can go efficiently about our work and his. The long journey that many of us experience under difficult circumstances are trials of faith. Faith is forged in the furnace of trials and tears and are marked by trust and testimony. Only God can count the sacrifice; only God can measure the sorrow; only God can know the hearts of those who serve him—then and now. Lessons from the past can quicken our memories, touch our lives, and direct our actions. We are prompted to pause and remember that divinely given promise: Wherefore you are on the Lord’s errand; and whatever you do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord’s business. If we want to continue to make top-notch contributions to our lives, we have to live righteously and be more care to guard our own physical vitality (which many of us put at risk during extended periods of stress) and our relationships with people we live (which many of us unilaterally feel we have to put on hold wen the need arises). Sometimes our lives are out of balance. Search diligently, pray always, and be believing and all things shall work together for your good. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Through humble prayer, diligent preparation, and faithful service, we can success in our sacred callings. As we slow our pace and rebalance our life, our relationships will grow stronger and improve, and the morale of our colleagues will progress. However, sometimes when we focus on the goal of making our lives run smoothly, we can fail to appreciate the fact that our lives are running efficiently. Therefore, after reaching a goal it is important to celebrate and set new expectations so that one does not go through life on automatic pilot. Exceptional competence is a tremendous present that nature hands to us as we reach our stride in life. We have been performing many of the same tasks for years, and eventually become quite good at them. In much the same way that the loss of self-consciousness frees our brains to perform amazing mental feats, exceptional competence frees our time and attention so we can focus on the important goals in our lives and in our service of the Lord’s work. That allows us to shed the barnacles of doubt, laziness, fear, and sin through faith, prayer, charity, obedience, and love. The lighthouse of God marks the way. The Lord’s beacon light will guide our course to celestial glory. In order to thrive, as we are experiencing the wonder of exceptional competence we must confirm or readjust our priorities and develop a vision, just as we did when we were young. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

The goals of youth are more societally bound, more concrete. As we age, our goals become based on individual rather than cultural need: we have to fashion our visions ourselves. There is a safe harbor. Our Heavenly Father—who knows of our heartache and suffering loves us and wants the best for us. Never doubt this. When we are rejuvenated, we can set about the difficult but fulfilling goal of being the architects of the rest of our lives. There are several clear signals that we are ready to embrace the joys and heartaches of exceptional competence One of the most obvious of these is boredom. The struggle to break out of the cocoon develops the butterfly so it can fly. Without that adversity, the butterfly would never have the strength to achieve its destiny. It would never develop the strength to become something extraordinary. Others are ashamed to admit they find other people, or their own lives, boring. Feeling the weight of too many tasks is another common sign that it is time for you to cease being a beast of burden at work and home. The adversity we experience allows our souls to become like clay in the hands of God. Trials and adversity can be preparatory to becoming born anew. Adversity can strengthen and refine us. As with the butterfly, adversity is needed to build character in people. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

Even when we are called to sail through troubled waters, we need to know the place of adversity in shaping our divine potential. For many of us, maximizing the benefits of exceptional competence does not seem particularly pressing; rarely do the signs of exceptional competence incite deep feelings of angst. However, the slow death we die of boredom or from the lack of a meaningful framework for our own lives is actually more harmful to mature adults overall than the inability or unwillingness to deal with the mental or physical aspects of aging. Depending on how we approach it, the gift of exceptional competence can either be a plateau on which we are stranded or a resting place on the mountain that leads to inner peace. If only we would look beyond our present suffering and see our struggles as a temporary chrysalis. If only we would have the faith and trust in our Heavenly Father to see how, after a little season, then we can emerge from our trails more refined and glorious. Traveling the pathway of exceptional competence means celebrating our achievements in all areas of life. Above all, we must not compare our success and failures to those of others. Doing so will only deflate or inflate one’s view of oneself unnecessarily: we will underestimate the value of what we have done, or we may end up with a false sense of superiority that will squelch our motivation. Each of us develops at our own pace according to our unique needs and interest. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Success is a function of persistence and tenacity and the willingness to work hard for a while to make sense of something most people would give up on after just a brief period. Tenacity is a cultural trait, embedded as deeply as the culture of honor. Many of us cannot abandon our belief in God. Every one of us who believes, they will have to sit with the boss upstairs who will want to know what have we done when we saw injustice. As our life’s new direction becomes clear, we may find that our daily life changes much more than it did on other pathways. It is important to be confident no matter what direction we decide upon, the many skills we have already mastered will be of great help in getting us where we want to go. Accepting our great competence at maturity can make our work and personal lives become desirable and appealing. Knowing we can rely on our established abilities frees us to accomplish amazing feats of creativity, productivity, and what many psychologist call generativity: being able to give away what we know. It also enables one to prepare for the exciting adventures of spiritual development. Our Father in Heaven does not wish us to cower. He does not want us to wallow in our misery. He expects us to square our shoulders, roll up our sleeves, and overcome challenges. That kind of spirit—that blend of faith and hard work—is the spirit we should emulate as we seek to reach a safe harbor in our own lives. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

With the rewards of exceptional competence, we can learn, achieve, and contribute in ways that far surpass what we have been able to accomplish so far. As we overcome adversity, we will become stronger. Then we will be better able to help others—those who are working, in their turn, to find a safe harbor from the storms that rage about them. At times we may be tempted to think the Savior is oblivious to our trials. In fact, the reverse is true; it is we who need to be awakened in our hearts to his teachings. Research shows that occupying a number of highly important roles during adulthood can actually buffer anxiety, enhance self-esteem, and increase our sense of control over our own lives. People who occupy multiple roles, which they deem to be good, shower greater self-esteem and overall psychological well-being than people with fewer or more negatively experienced roles. Furthermore, if you experience a disturbance in ole role, the rewards of other roles can compensate for the loss and lessen the impact of the blow. Use your ingenuity, your strength, your might to resolve your challenges. Do all you can do and then leave the rest to the Lord. If our lives and our faith are centered on God and his gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. We also need to make conscious decisions for future role management so we can experience a productive chemistry of inner and outer imperatives that encourages free-flowing growth. God it at the helm and will shower down blessings upon those who walk in obedience to his commandments. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6