Their World—their culture and generation and family history—gave them the greatest of opportunities. How we feel affects almost every single decision we make during the day. We all experience hardship during which we need the reassurance of the spirit. Some people’s lives are negatively impacted by low self-esteem. There was a young man who wanted to go to college and become an artist, even though he was failing high school. He was afraid of trying, because he was afraid he would not succeed. With that revelation in hand, the young man goes on to pursue his dream. The conditions on which we can receive that supernal blessing are made clear in the words that are spoken every day, but perhaps do not always sink into our hearts and minds. To have the spirit sent to us, we must always remember the Savior and keep his commandments. There are three essentials for good self-esteem: Stop blaming others for your problems; start setting realistic goals; and start seeking beneficial influences. It is not easy, but it is possible. “I can do all things through God who strengthens me,” reports Philippians 4.13. Many therapists are trying to converge us to the ideals of self-reliance, reinvention, and individuality. And this inevitably puts the burden on our shoulders: your problems, yourself, your needs. What can you do to make your life better? #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

The focus is turned away from the system and how it works, and aimed back at the individual: Oh, you are not the movie star you wanted to be? Well, honey, you just did not try hard enough. You are not the young rebel who bucks the system and earns a pay raise and a big corner office? Well—your self-esteem quotient is lobe, others can sense the limitations of your aura, your image needs an update. Jennifer, a lawyer, stood in her office, dumfounded. Her boss, a pretty sensitive man, had just told her she was not going to get the raise she expected. Tears burning behind her eyes, Jennifer found the words to ask why. “I do not like your attitude. We will she how things look in another three months,” her boss replied. As Jenifer made her way home, she was really stressed out. “I was really counting on that raise. Is he just being cheap? Do I have an attitude problem? Gosh, if I get fired, it is going to look awful.” After months of stress and low self-esteem, Jennifer decided to give her boss what he wanted—attention—even though it cut into the time she needed to do her job well. She smiled at him all the time, showed empathy when he told her his troubles, and when he was not around, she did her work. After three months he told her that her attitude had improved tremendously, and have her a raise. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

The self-esteem industry places the emphasis on you, your desires, needs, expectations, sacrifices, willingness to work hard. This not only encourages us to consider ourselves capable of changing and taking control of our lives, but discourages any examination of the overall system in which we live our lives. By failing to present anything even remotely like a realistic picture of the chances of success, self-esteem mythology teaches us to internalize failures and limitations, and conditions us to accept lives of disappointment and regret. When we believe in self-esteem mantra, we believe that we are always the source of our failures. Though our lives are steeped in a promise of success that is not always based on self-esteem, hard work, and talent as we are told, and when we take this promise literally, we feel our inability to become whatever we have set our sights on as our fault, our failure. God has repeatedly said he would structure mortality to be a proving and testing experience. Hence, enduring is vital, and those who so last will be first spiritually! There are so many things to be endured: infirmary, injustice, insensitivity, poverty, aloneness, unresponsiveness, being misrepresented and misunderstood, and, sometimes, even enemies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

We tend to think only in terms of our endurance, but it is God’s patient long-suffering which provides us with our chances to improve, affording us urgently needed developmental space or time. However, because so many people preach, once you overcome your self-esteem deficit, you can do anything you want. And once you have self-esteem, you too will have your own book, TV show, and speaking gigs. You will be super-special, an entertainment vector complete wit name, niche, style, and corporate sponsor. An alien visitor surveying our culture and seeing how there is a lack of affordable housing, how hard it is to obtain a higher education depending on your demographics and lifestyle, the overpopulation causing too much traffic, and the high crime rates might well conclude that it is a lack of self-esteem that plagues North American more than any other problem—more than cancer and heart disease, more than severe inequities in the distribution of wealthy and resources, more than injustice and discrimination. Yet, if certain mortal experiences were cut short, it would be like pulling up a flower to see how the roots are doing. Put it another way, too many anxious openings of the oven door, and the cake falls instead of rising. Moreover, enforced change usually does not last, while productive enduring can ingrain permanent change. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

The American Dream kind of started in the 19^th century, when America was a population building and developing nation. For instance, a Russian tailor artisan came to America, takes to the needle trade, works in a sweat shop for a small salary. Later takes garments to finish at home with the help of his wife and other children. In order to increase his salary, he works through the night. Later he makes a garment and sells it on New York street. He accumulates some capitol and goes into business venture with his sons. They open a shop to create men’s garments. The Russian tailor and his sons become men’s suit manufacture supplying several men’s stores. The sons and the father become prosperous. The sons’ children become educated professionals. Therefore, the success stories started when the population was low and they were able to build generations of wealth by keeping money in the family. A similar situation also happened in more modern times whereas gangster made money, then squared up, moved to the suburbs and sent their children to school so they could get an education and make money without doing back breaking labor. That way they would not have to worry about how they would be able to pay their bills, nor would they be working in sweat shops to support themselves. It is a literate and intellectual culture. With their education, they could work for a corporation and have a pension, paid time off, and a climate-controlled office to work in. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances ad opportunities. And while self-esteem matter, it is not the sole basis for success. For example, no one rises to the top of the New York legal profession unless he or she is smart and ambitious and hard working. To get hired at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in the prestigious office building known as Black Rock, it takes a small miracle. Unlike New York’s other major law firms, all which have hundred of attorneys scattered around the major capitols of the World, it operates only out of that single Manhattan building. They specialize in general practice, have 260 attorneys, revenue of $580 million, and turns down much more business than it accepts. And unlike every one of its competitors, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz does not bill by the hour. It simply names a fee. Once, while defending Kmart against takeover, the firm billed $20 million for two weeks work. Kmart paid—happily. If its attorneys do not outsmart you, they will outwork you, and if they cannot outwork you, they will win through sheer intimidation. There is no firm in the World that has made more money, lawyer for lawyer over the past two decades. They have a track record of original and groundbreaking solutions and innovations that have had a dramatic impact on business and law. They are leaders in legal matters. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

Patient endurance is to be distinguished from merely being acted upon. Endurance is more than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance; it is not only acceptance of the things allotted to us, it is to act for ourselves by magnifying what is allotted to us. If, for instance, we are always taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we will not be. If we are constantly comparing to see if things are fair, we are not only being unrealistic, we are being unfair to ourselves. Well-adjusted in our society means atomized, solitary, on your own, and able to handle the burdens of being on your own. People should be about to project security and confidence through the appropriate articulations of the soul. However, so many people are buying into the power of self-esteem, and few seem to be happier for it. Rates of depression, stress anxiety, and suicide continue to climb. Suicide is the 10^th leading cause of death for Americans. It is estimated the 90 percent of suicides suffer from depression. It was found that 35 million Americans suffer from depression severe enough to require medical treatment. The Western Word is plagued by depression. It is estimated that by 2020 depression will be the leading cause of disability in developed nations and the second leading cause Worldwide. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

We put to much on a person when we tell them by changing who you are, the World will change, too, instead of actually taking an interest in them and sincerely trying to help them work through there problems. Tell a person they have to change in order to be accepted makes people feel like freaks inside, as if they are not loveable. It is also important to set reasonable goals and keep faith in God. Have you ever noticed when you really listen to a person and try to comfort them their response to it is automatic—eyes light up, ears perk, heart beats harder; and here comes the excitement; here comes something that makes life worth living. Therefore, true enduring represents not merely the passage of time, but the passage of the soul—and not merely from A to B, but sometimes all the way from A to Z. To endure in faith and does God’s will. Therefore, involves much more than putting up with a circumstance. Sometimes spiritual obedience requires us to hold on lovingly. Emotionally mature people take autonomic stress responses as a sign that their feelings must be dealt with. They allow themselves to experience the feelings fully, even if they are painful. Only at this point can they follow the natural propulsion toward rational thought that leads to appropriate action (or inaction). Neglecting to feel the hurt fully leads to the kind of inappropriate action—pretending nothing has happened will only make one more unhappy. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

We often need the process of time in order to come to our spiritual senses.  Feelings always manage to find a way out. You know that already: tension headaches, insomnia, mild depression, and upset stomach have plagued all of us at one time or another. Denied emotions even prompt our bodies to respond as though threatened. In the absence of some kind of physical release or stress management technique, your body remains all dressed up with nowhere to go, stuck in a state of internal alarm. Recent medical studies show that seventy percent of people who feel unwell enough to call their physicians are suffering from some type of unresolved emotional distress. We also pay a price for squelching our natural responses to pleasurable emotions. Few of us are rewarded in societal terms for fully expressing joy. Life can be so empty without joy. The empty-life syndrome may lead to severe depression, or addiction to alcohol or cocaine or other drugs. Cognitive psychologist have recently hypothesized that the capacity to take pleasure in people, activities, and things is primary factor in overcoming addiction. We are daily guided by the divine spirit, and if there is anything in it that does not belong, it is cast out because there is one perfect life in one now. Be guided by divine intelligence in love, in joy, and in complete self-expression. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

Emotionally healthy adults are capable of experiencing true joy despite the bad thins that might happen to them. After half a lifetime, most of us catch on to the idea that some days things work and some days they do not, regardless of how hard we try. We lose the grandiosity of youth that says we can and must be the force at the center of life. At some time in your life, you have probably experienced the pangs of homesickness. It might have been those first times you stayed overnight with a friend or went on a sleepover As much as you wanted to be with your friends, you might have been lonely for your parents and for the secure feeling of being home, where is was safe and comfortable. Sustained homesickness might not have come until later—when you left for college or moved to a new state to buy a house. And you might have found yourself struggling to adapt to new surroundings and maybe even new relatives. During these periods of adjustment and absence, you perhaps felt unsettled, lonely, and perhaps a deep yearning for home. If we do our emotional homework, our feelings can continue to be a source of great excitement, as they were in our teens, and young adulthood, but they can also cease to burden us the way they did when we were young. They may even bring us happiness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

It is the very nature of emotions to get tangled up. A feeling as basic as love can be tied to trust, respect, support, understanding and more. Sometimes our intense yearnings can cause poor performance, a waste of time, lack of concentration, and a dislike for our present disposition. The World changes that have taken place in the last century have increased the need for emotional support systems, yet we have not as a culture developed any new ways for keeping up with the pace and intensity of our emotions. Increasing numbers of psychologist and psychiatrists agree that the complexities of modern life, and our culture’s devaluation of feelings, may necessitate an emotional revolution. Only rare individuals ascend to adulthood in full harmony with their innermost feelings. Most of us reach the prime of our lives burdened by unresolved feelings from childhood and unaware of the bounty unadulterated feelings can provide. Our expectations are raised, but the World we live in—the World we made!—is unable to fulfill what our own popular culture promises us. Bloated on promise, starving for opportunity, a good chunk of us search for a way into the popular World. Our culture has become separate from us. In the struggle to renew our claim to our own fantasies, we seem to be moving further and further from ourselves. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

People do not always get discovered because of their talent. There are lots of talented people in the World; some make it, some do not. You have to work hard, and you have to work smart. And most important is to have originality and genuine talent. In 1889, Louis and Regina Borgenicht boarded an ocean liner in Hamburg, Germany for America. They knew one person in American and had enough money to last a few weeks. Like so many other immigrants to America in those years, theirs was a leap of faith. Louis and Regina found a tiny apartment on Eldridge Street, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, for $8 a month. Louis then took to the streets to look for work. The answer came to him after give long days of walking up and down the street of the Lower East Side, just as he was about to give up hope. It was clothes. Everywhere around him stores were opening—suits, dresses, overalls, shirts, skirts, blouses, trousers, all made and ready to be worn. Coming from a World where clothing was sewn at home by hand or made to order by tailors, this was a revelation. Louis and Regina looked for a novel, something that people would wear that was not being sold in stores. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

For four more days Louis walked the streets. On the evening of the final day as he walked toward home, he saw a half dozen girls playing hopscotch. One of the girls was wearing a tiny embroidered apron over her dress, cut low in the front with a tie in the back, and it struck him, suddenly, that in his previous days of relentlessly inventorying the clothing shops of the Lower East Side, he had never seen one of those aprons for sale. Regina has an ancient sewing machine they have bought on their arrival in America. The next morning Louis went to a dry-goods store on Hester Street and bought a hundred yards of gingham and fifty yards of white crossbar. He came back to their apartment and laid the goods out on the dining room table. Regina began to cut the gingham—small sizes for toddlers, larger for small children—until she had forty aprons. The next morning, Louis gathered them up over his arm and ventured out onto Hester Street. By one o’clock they were all gone. Eventually Louis and Regina went on to be a prosperous manufacturer of women’s and children’s clothing. The rewards of emotional vitality are so many and so far-reaching. Take advantage of the rewards along this path; you need the confidence and outlook that come after spending a few years on the planet to make the most of the discoveries found here. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

You can free yourself from the tyranny of depression, rage, and free-floating anxiety—those unwanted visitors that have drained your energy and zest for life. Autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward are three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not always about how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and fives. It is whether our work fulfills us. If you were offered a choice between being an architect for $75,000 a year and working in a tollbooth every day for the rest of your life for $100,0000 a year, which would you take? Most people would choose the job as an architect because there is complexity, autonomy, and a relationship between effort and reward in doing creative work, and that is worth more to most of us than money. Work that fulfills us is meaningful. Being a teacher is meaningful. Being a physician is meaningful. So is being an entrepreneur. Even when people are penniless and desperate, and they know their career is going to require years of backbreaking labor, they are ecstatic, because the prospect of those endless years of hard labor does not seem like a burden to them. Bill Gates had the same feeling when he first sat down at the keyboard at Lakeside. And the Beatles did not recoil in horror when they were told they have to play eight hours a night, seven days a week. They jumped at the chance. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing brings you joy. If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the World to your desires and imagine the example you are setting for your kids. In those homes were meaningful work is practiced, imagine what it is like for the children to watch the meteoric rise of their parents. People who are willing to do the work of getting in touch with what matters to the heart report huge gains in mental clarity, physical energy, interpersonal communication, and spiritual readiness. Best of all, they report they have a better sense than ever of who they are and how to present that self to the World. Learning to command new, more constructive emotional responses to disturbing situations does not happen overnight. You cannot hope to erase years of habit in one sitting. If you become comfortable with the hurt, angry, fearful innocence within yourself, you will be able to accept yourself as you really are, not just how others see you or how you want to see yourself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

Not just children, but all of us will want to think of home under joyous or trying circumstances. We let ourselves become homesick for love, acceptance, security, understanding, and guidance that generally are taught and shared there. Home should be the place in which a person can unburden one’s soul and find renewed strength to face the World, where there is comfort, joy, and understanding, where best friends can live, and where we can learn to be our best selves. There is a certain kind of yearning for home we should never want to lose. Home should be an anchor, a port in a storm, a refuge, a happy place in which to dwell, a place where we are loved and where we can love. Home should be where life’s greatest lessons are taught and learned. Home and family can be the center of one’s Earthly faith, where love and mutual responsibility are appropriately blended. Thinking of home with its pleasant and happy memories can make us stronger during our present and future days here upon the Earth. To go back to the land that nourished us and built character in us and provided us the sacred beginning of a life devoted to God, family, career, and country is truly love. Our responsibilities are to share the warmth of our homes by being god neighbors and friends. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

To know who we are is important, but to know where we are in relationship to our Earthly home and Heavenly home is essential if we are to receive all the blessings our Father in Heaven has for those who love him and keep his commandments. Our eternal home is our ultimate destination. A proper yearning for home can prevents our getting lost in detours or paths that lead us away. We have all felt the heartache and longing for opportunities that, at least for a time, were beyond our reach. However, we are literally the children of our Heavenly father. Almighty Lord, God of the powers and the flesh, who lives in the highest and cares for the humble, who searches our hearts and affections, and clearly foreknows the secrets of people; eternal and everliving light, in whom is no change nr shadow of variation; immortal king, receive our prayers which at the present time we offer from our understanding, trusting the multitude of your mercies. Forgive all sins committed by us in thought, word or deed, consciously or unconsciously, and cleanse us from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Grant us to pass the night of the whole present life with wakeful heart and sober thought, ever expecting the radiant day of the appearing of the Savior, when the judge of all will come with glory to render to each according to their deeds. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

 May we not be found fallen and idle, but awake and alert and ready for action, ready to accompany him into the joy and divine palace of his glory, where there is the ceaseless sound of those keeping festival and the unspeakable delight of those who behold the ineffable beauty of your face. For you are true light that enlightens and sanctifies all, and all creation sin to you throughout the ages. When we have a yearning and do not know what it is for, perhaps it is our soul longing for its heartland, longing to be no longer alienated from the Lord and the pursuit of something much higher, and more fulfilling than anything this Earth has to offer. May our yearning for home be the motivation we need to so live that we can return to our Heavenly home with God our Father on a forever basis. May our hearts be filled with gratitude for the Lord for his divine intervention to relieve the suffering, heal the sick, and resurrection. The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul and then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

The state of our health affects every facet of our life—our feeling of personal well-being, our approach to work, our social interactions—even our service to the Lord. Some people do not feel like themselves unless they have huge reserves of energy, strength, and physical resilience at their disposal. For these individuals, physical vigor is a hard-won way of life, one that they treasure. Although physical ills are a reality of life, in spite of them we should still have joy. The Lord has affirmed this statement by providing us with revealed instructions concerning our health, which, if followed, will increase both the length of our life and the joy in it. Much of what upsets you can be fixed or improved upon; current research on biological aging is very encouraging. Also, the physical component of our journey is intricately connected to all the other components. Our mind, emotions, and relationships cannot be at their peak if our body is not functioning at its best. The Lord specifics both substances that are for our use and those which are detrimental to us. Scientific research has verified the harmful effects of alcohol and drugs—even upon the development of an unborn child. We have been warned both by our prophets and by science of the dangers in the improper and indiscriminate use of drugs, including over-the-counter drugs. Helpful as these remedies are in times if illness, some contain ingredients that if used to excess or in combination with other substances can have dangerous side effects—even dependency or addiction. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Each and every manifestation of popular culture purports to be telling a story of how the individual transcends obstacles and the masses to earn recognition, success, and happiness. Though the plot may be about a sultry maid from the wrong side of the tracks working for a repressed rich guy, the story is really concerned with how all of us ordinary people can transcend our limitations; the story is really how you feel, work, live, and love. Teenagers now often attach more importance to the World of commercial popular culture and peer relationships than they do to their family and health. The rewards along the pathway of physical vigor are available to novices as well as experts in the physical arena. Tailor your travels to suit your pace and needs. The measure of your success is how happy you are with the way you feel, look, and perform physically. Most important, is your body willing and able to take you where you want to go? If you are already in terrific shape, do not make the mistake of assuming you have nothing to gain by going down the path of physical vigor. There is more to the physical side of you than simply being in great shape. Life offers all of us the opportunity to enrich our physical experience by becoming more attuned to the unique ways our bodies express their needs. Furthermore, by giving yourself more peak physical experiences, you put yourself on the road to greater mental, emotional, and spiritual rewards. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Some people are waiting for their status to be elevated when the rich and powerful recognize how really special they truly are. However, money does not matter; what is inside you is what counts; we are all important in our own special way. The Lord might be making us aware of another law of health—the need of proper exercise. Exercise such as walking and running and other forms of rhythmic action is important in maintaining cardiovascular fitness. In our busy lives sometimes we are prone to excuse ourselves for not getting proper exercise by saying that we have neither the time nor the opportunity. However, it may help to think about the amazing things your body has already done for you. Remind yourself that even the smallest change in how you treat your body can make a difference in the way you look and feel.  We are also counseled to retire early, that we may not be weary and arise early that our bodies and minds may be invigorated. We should also keep our hands clean, the surfaces in our house clean and thing orderly. People who take good care of their bodies and homes and follow a healthy life style, research indicated that it could increase the life of a forty-five-year-old man by 33 years! The results of this research have been replicated many times over, so you can be confident that living a balanced, healthy lifestyle can add decades of well-being and vigor to your adult life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

We should be grateful that scientific research and medical practice have resulted in longer life spans, greater health and vitality, and reduction in deaths among babies and small children. One of the touching parts of our past history is the great longing mothers and fathers felt for something to help their sick children get well. Today, immunization against disease is a great blessing. Some of the most hazardous diseases are now almost totally under control because of immunization. With the demise of breakfast comes a decline in energy and a slight weight gain. It is important to find breakfast food you enjoy because it will help you revive your stamina, and increase metabolism, and burn calories. These lofty goals remain a motivating force of all who are involved in this great work. There are some important things to know about aging and the body so we can perhaps counteract some of the issues. The average American loses 6.6 pound of muscle each decade after young adulthood. Without regular exercise to increase muscle-to-fat ratio, the rate of loss accelerates after age forty-five. Without regular exercise, the body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently after age sixty-five will decline an average of 30 to 40 percent. Blood pressure increases steadily with age for most Americans, primarily because of the consumption of fat, salt, and alcohol; smoking; and insufficient exercise. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

The skeletal system loses calcium with age, making bones less dense, weaker, and more brittle. A brisk daily walk can prevent development of osteoporosis. Improving muscle-to-fat ratio and muscle strength also spurs the body to improve blood sugar tolerance, regulate and stabilize its internal temperature, maintain healthier blood pressure levels, and increase its aerobic capacity, because you have more working muscles consuming oxygen. Even more amazing is the finding that adults who exercise their muscles on a regular basis report psychological benefits, such as an increased sense of well-being, youthful vigor, and self-esteem. Some parents even teach their children to come up with questions to ask the doctor when they are going for a check-up. This helps the child gain the doctor’s full attention. It also teaches children that they have a right to speak up, even when they are in a room with an older person and authority figure, it is seen as being perfectly all right for child to assert oneself. In doing so, the child learns to shift the balance of power away from the adults and towards themselves. That way children get used to being treated with respect. They learn that they are special people worthy of adult attention and interest. Socializing is an important part aspect of the church program. People are encouraged the cultivation of friends with happy conversations among our people. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Everyone of us has times when we need to know things will get better. We have hope for a better World. For our emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of good things to come. There is help. There is happiness. There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the light that is endless, that can never be darkened. It is the return of hope. To any who may be struggling to see that light and find that hope, hold on. God loves you. Things will improve. There is a future of better promises. Even if you cannot always see that silver lining on your clouds, God can, for he is the very source of light you seek. God does love you, and he knows your fears. God hears your prayers. He is your Heavenly Father, and surely he matches with his own the tears his children shed. God’s love and power can calm the storm. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Because know that for the faithful, things will be made right soon enough. God is a king; he speaks for the crown; he knows what can be promised. The Lord redeems that soul of his children and none of them that trust him shall be desolate. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

Our spiritual growth is usually imperceptible expect through the rearview lens of time. Our cells have been instilled with our memories; thus, to receive someone else’s cells is to receive their memories at the same time. People who delve into the details of whatever ignites their passion will always impress others with their mental vitality. The way our unconscious mind works, we are actually attracted to—moved psychologically toward—what we think about. Most of us seek a connection with a higher power at crucial moments in life—marriage, divorce, birth, and death. Many people are seeking out personal spiritual counselors who help them become more themselves by rewriting the terms in which they see their lives. The goal here is not to examine and change, but to find a story that makes individuals comfortable with who and what they are. The rise of the conforming individual is altering the traditional business model of treating your employees like people who work for your company. Consultants insist that to succeed, employers must treat employees as friends. Ask them how they feel, what they want, and make sure they can grow on the job. The goal is to reshape the narrative of their working life around their own sense of worth and identity. It is suggested that employees are told that the job is not about profits and success, it is to help you grow as a person and learn skills that will make us all successful. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

When people believe that their jobs are about personal growth, it helps to retain them as an employee. It keeps them loyal and motivated. A new corporate language has been invented to support people’s need to believe that their work is actually an endless quest for originality. The corporate culture is changing to help people operate from a more soulful place because in the past people were bleeding, their souls were bleeding in the workplace, people were suffering at work, before they even leave the front door. Companies are realizing that what is affecting the bottom line is the attitude and discontent of their employees. And now, there is a much more beneficial approach, more consciousness around how leaders are managing their people. Mistakes are a fact of life. Learning to skillfully play the piano is essentially impossible without making thousands of mistakes—maybe even a million. Success is not the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. We are increasingly zealous about standing out, announcing ourselves as special. We refuse to have our lives subsumed by antediluvian tradition. However, the more we strike out on our own, the more we feel truly alone. On our own, we are less able to find meaning in what we do and be satisfied with who we are. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Unwavering faith will help us go from failure to failure until we finally obtain success. We are seldom prepared to go it alone: The vast majority of us still want to be recognized in business, noticed at church, and redeemed by marriage. This fantasy has altered our relationship to work, family, faith, education—almost every institutional structure that exists. The fantasy of total freedom seems to constantly undermine our lives to the extent that a successful entrepreneur and family person is always dissatisfied, convinced that to move forward one must be more creative, bolder, willing to completely reinvent one’s life today, tomorrow, next year, or next month. The Lord knows that these things shall give us experience, and shall be for our good. God allows us to take the bitter, that we may know to prize the good. Also, the battle is the Lord’s, and it is only by his grace that we can accomplish his work and become like him. The trials we face are to hep us develop and hone scores of Godlike attributes that cannot be refined except through opposition and in the furnace of affliction. Visualization works best when we associate ourselves with the optimistic expression of what we want rather than the negative aspects. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

Think of visualization as the power of successful thinking. We are not only anticipating the best, you are allying ourselves with it. For that reason, when we encounter the inevitable barriers on our way to our goal, we will tend to look at the problem from the winner’s side. While we are grateful for second chances following mistakes, or failures of the mind, we stand all amazed at the Savior’s grace in giving us second chances in overcoming sin, or failures of the heart. Most people improve their attitudes and dispositions significantly when they envision someone helping them. This is a simple yet powerful demonstration of how maintaining a vision of what we desire will support us in accomplishing our goals. No one is more on our side than the Savior. He allows us to take and keep retaking his exams. To become like him will require countless second chances in our daily struggles with the natural humans, such as controlling appetites, learning patience and forgiveness, overcoming slothfulness, and avoiding sins of omission, just to name a few. If to err is human nature, how many failures will it take us until our nature is no longer human but divine? Thousands? More likely a million. The proof of any creative endeavor is its outcome. At some point we must decide which combination of ideas will yield the best results. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Knowing that the strait and narrow path would be strewn with trials and that failures would be a daily occurrence for us, the Savior paid an infinite price to give us as many chances as it would take to successfully pass our mortal probation. The opposition which he allows can often seem insurmountable and almost impossible to bear, yet God does not leave us without hope. This is what faith does for us as long as it is sincere. However, even here, the clearance will not be complete if we continue to worry over the question of salvation and the ultimate well-being of the soul. This, too, must have a clearance, a redemption, and a new birth. There is a power for good which is responding to us and bringing into our experiences everything that is necessary to our unfoldment, to our happiness, to our peace, to our health, and to our success. There is a power of God that enables us to help others and to bless the whole World. To keep our hope resilient as we face life’s trials, the Savior’s grace is ever ready and ever present. His grace is a divine means of help or strength, an enabling power that allows people to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after we have expended our own best efforts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

 God’s grace and his loving eyes are upon us throughout our entire journey as he inspires, lightens burdens, strengthens, delivers, protects, heals, and otherwise succors his people, even as they stumble along the strait and narrow path. Repentance is God’s ever accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Sovereign and almighty Lord, bless all thy people, and all thy flock. Give thy peace, thy help, thy love unto us they children, the obedient of thy fold, that we may be united in the bond of peace and love, one body and one spirit, in one hope of calling, in thy divine and boundless love. Lord, be with us this day, within us to purify us; above us to draw us up; beneath us to sustain us; before us to lead us; behind us to restrain us; around us to protect us. A change of mind and heart that brings a fresh attitude toward God, oneself, and in life is general is what we gain through repentance. That kind of change results in spiritual growth. Our success, then, is not going from failure to failure, but from growing from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. In our weakness, God reassures us, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The is a World of its own that lives in the heart, not in the head.  #RandolphHarris 6 of 6   

The tendency to wrongly identify ourselves is something many people do when they are facing difficulty beyond their comprehension. Even though all of our problems are not resolved, we are making progress and should be grateful and somewhat amazed by that. I am certain that our Heavenly Father is displeased when we refer to ourselves as nobody. How fair is it when we classify ourselves as nobody? How fair are we to our families? How fair are we to our God? When we allow ourselves, through tragedy, misfortune, challenge, discouragement, or whatever Earthly situation, to so identify ourselves as worthless, we do ourselves a great injustice. We cannot find any justification to label ourselves as nobody. We have to meet situations as they come along, without fear and without in any way trying to avoid them. For every issues of life must be met right where it is, and what is wrong must be made right. As children of God we are somebody. He will build us, mold us, and magnify us if we will but hold our heads up, our arms out, and walk with him. What a great blessing it is to be created in God’s image and know of our true potential in and through him. We have the ability to perform complex tasks with unconscious competence, assume leadership and mentor roles in the areas where we have particular strengths, and to make significant contributions to the wider World based upon our unique talents and desire. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5

What a great blessing it is to know that in God’s strength we can do all things. God has provided us with many mighty miracles, which allow us to contemplate in ever greater depth the mysteries of the Universe, achieve a new found sense of awe, reverence, and continuity with him. Sometimes humankind is prone to identify someone they are unfamiliar with as unknown or nobody. Often this is done for self-convenience and an unwillingness to listen. When we have time for serious reflection, it should become clear to us that we all have a unique personal destiny, and that we have to appreciate our own wholeness and worthy, and it is important to love oneself, one’s life, and one’s fate. Once we learn to do this, we will grow farther and faster as we calculate specific objectives within our journey, see our new capabilities, and understand what goals hold the most interest for us. We will discover new prizes along our specific pathways that captures our imagination. This coming to understand our psychological difficulties, and how to clear the passageway in order that the original source of life may flow through us unobstructed, in its most comprehensive sense is called self-awareness. It means a clearing-up in the mind of the unconscious repressions and conflicts which are so deeply buried that we are aware of them only because they re-echo in everything we do, say, and think. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5

God help us to realize that one of our greatest responsibilities and privileges is to life a self-labeled nobody to a somebody, who is wanted, needed, and desirable. “I am nobody” is a destructive philosophy. It is a tool of the deceiver. Coming to one’s self, coming to awareness, coming to understand why and how we started on the wrong path emotionally, explaining this to the self—this is what is meant by self-awareness. However, self-awareness alone is not enough, for this reason: There is an incessant urge back of everything to create, to express life, to come to the gratification of happiness, peace, joy, and self-expression. Self-awareness is not enough. It is merely clearing the track for right action. Something has to be done with self-awareness. We are not seeking a way to escape from life or living, for this would be the exact opposite of the whole purpose of existence, which is to express the self. The journey began when we felt the first stirrings of change in our heart and mind. The more we commune with God and set goals, the more we will release our inborn potential to grow deeper, wiser, and more resilient. Along the way, it is important to celebrate and continue our accomplishments, as well as sharing our success with others and encouraging them in their own journeys. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5

Many heroes of great art and literature also embark upon journeys, which allow them to fulfill their greatest potential. Epic heroes face immense challenges that are metaphors for the challenges we must face in our day-to-day lives, as well as metaphors for coming to terms with the biggest challenge of all: eternal life. To mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, and children everywhere, we declare that regardless of your present station in life you are someone special. Each person grows at a different pace during every stage of life. Use your knowledge acquired from self-renewal to hold the promise of specific gifts in your mind and heart to encourage yourself. Expect that whatever you discover will delight you once you understand why things happen the way they do. Do not allow yourself to be self-condemning. Avoid discouragement. Teach yourself correct principles and govern yourself with honor. As we develop proper self-image in ourselves and others, I promise you the nobody attitude will completely disappear. Choose your companion with care. You will reveal many of your inner truths to this person. He or she must be a good listener and must be secure enough not to be affected by jealousy of your progress, anger at your pace, or worry over how your growth might change the relationship. God lives. He too is someone—real and eternal—and he wants us to be someone with him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5

Achievement is talent plus preparation. The emerging research indicates that it takes ten thousand hours of practice, or ten years, to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a World-class expert—in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fictions writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master computer programmers, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Of course, this does not address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. However, no one has yet found a case in which true World-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to knows to achieve true mastery. Although some people seem to master things as a child, it can take many decades, even into adulthood to really develop genius talent. Mozart, for example, started composing music at age six, but he did not produce his greatest work until he had been composing for more than twenty years. Practice is not the thing you do once you are good. It is the thing you do that makes you good. The other interesting thing about that ten thousand hours, of course, is that ten thousand hours is an enormous amount of time. It is nearly impossible to reach that number all by yourself by the time you are a young adult. You have to have parents who encourage and support you. However, anything is possible for those who love God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5