Yes, I know how incredible that may sound to some, especially if your life hasn’t gone the way you expected.  You’ve probably also had some painful experiences involving either someone else deciding against you in a single instance or many others using their agency across multiple instances.  Maybe you’ve experienced both.  But even if you’ve had the whole world against you, I still say seek and expect miracles.

We typically think of miracles as events that defy the laws of nature.  For me, miracles are manifestations of one or more universal laws we don’t understand fully.

This shift in perspective is essential to why I say we should seek and expect miracles.  The perspectives we take and the assumptions we embrace are everything; they’re key components of our thinking, which produces our actions, which in turn produces our results.  In the end, we all want results, so when we don’t get desired results, we need to examine our thinking.

President Nelson begins his comments on miracles with this declaration:

First, he illustrates his concept with the words of a single adult!  And this wasn’t just any single.  No, Moroni had everything ripped from him.  He witnessed the destruction of his people in a horrible war, leaving him to wander alone for the safety of his own life.  Yet he still declared fervent belief in miracles.

All lives have painful disappointments, but most don’t compare to Moroni’s.  If in his circumstances he could find the strength to believe in miracles, could we not muster the courage to do the same?

President Nelson continued,

It’s not just Moroni but every book of scripture declaring belief in miracles — all the more reason to question our perspectives and assumptions leading us to disbelieve in miracles.  While we question, we should remember the Prophet’s caveat: Miracles can take time and may not unfold how we expect.  So often LDS singles seeking a miracle expect something so inconsistent with universal law they take the absence of their miracle as evidence against miracles.

That last phrase caught my attention.  How many LDS singles have approached their desire for a miracle “doubting nothing”?  Most of us have doubts, some so much so they’re consumed by them.  And yet “doubting nothing” is part of the price of faith we must pay for admission to the miracle show.

That means we’ve got work to do.  It’s no surprise then to see President Nelson’s next words:

How often have we advocated taking ownership of your life, or doing what’s in your power, or partnering with the Lord?  Results come from only one thing — action.  To score points, you must quit sitting on the sidelines and get on the field.  So often the miracle we want is perfection delivered to our doorstep.  In reality, we need to partner with the Lord, accept His guidance, and do the work that will create our miracle.

So many LDS singles wanting a miracle are faint.  They’re weary.  They’re beat down by the vicissitudes of life that point their gaze towards their weaknesses and imperfections, leaving them to wonder how their miracle could ever happen.

But none of that matters when you partner with the Lord, for He “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”  With Him, we can do anything, even move the mountain seemingly standing before us.

So yes, even if you’ve had the whole world against you, I still say seek and expect miracles.  Believe they can happen for you.  Partner with the Lord and do the work you must do to have your miracle.  You can then live with confidence that in time your miracle will happen.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

To assist all in gaining and maintaining positive spiritual momentum, the Prophet makes five recommendations:

1.  Get on the covenant path and stay there.
   
2.  Discover the joy of daily repentance.
3.  Learn about God and how He works.
4.  Seek and expect miracles.
5.  End conflict in your personal life.

Although each of these five activities apply directly to LDS singles, today I’ll discuss just two.  The restored gospel has the solutions LDS singles seek, and when we apply the gospel deep within us, we can find the power of spiritual momentum.

Far be it from me to discount the covenant path.  It’s so essential the Prophet lists it first among his recommendations.  That said, I’d like to begin with his second point: Discover the joy of daily repentance.

When I was a young man, I thought of repentance as something for the big wrongs we do.  Few if any of us do anything big every day, so in this view, repentance becomes an occasional activity.  Yet President Nelson’s sees more broadly.  Not only should we embrace repentance daily, we can also find joy when we do.

Simply put, daily repentance is just daily improvement, making small changes every day that move us forward.  President Nelson taught,

If that’s true, then daily repentance is the key to daily progress.

These ideas apply directly to LDS singles who want more from their lives.  Far too many of us are waiting around for our happily ever after to be thrust upon us.  We need to use the gift of agency God has granted us and choose to do the little things day by day that will over time aggregate into the happily ever after we seek.

And since we’re talking here about singles, it shouldn’t surprise anyone I’ll focus on the Prophet’s fourth suggestion: Seek and expect miracles.  The battering many singles receive from ineffective approaches to dating leave many thinking the only way their happily ever after will come to them is by a miracle.

That thinking has led also to this conclusion: The miracle they need just won’t happen.  They don’t see any way anyone they like could like them.  They don’t see how anyone would accept them with all their imperfections and disadvantages.

But President Nelson sees very differently.  He declared,

In the end, it all comes down to what you really believe.  If you don’t believe, you won’t receive.  Faith must precede the miracle.  And as President Nelson taught, it must be the kind of faith that doubts nothing.

We’ll of course discuss these and more points from President Nelson’s address in the broadcast today.  In the end, we always get what we give.  Those who consistently give the small contributions to their success day in and day out will eventually get the success they seek.

In all of our efforts, we must remember patience.  It takes time to build momentum.  As we discussed earlier, just doing 1% more each day will result in a 38% improvement after one year.  The first three months of that year, you go from your baseline (where you are now) to 2X.  But in the last three months, you go from 15X to 38X.  Why the vast difference in improvement?  Because you have momentum by the time you reach the last three months, but when you just start out, you don’t.

And you can best hold to momentum when you partner with the Lord.  He can show you the 1% improvement you need to make every day.  He can support you in making it every day.  He can strengthen you with patience as you build your needed momentum.

So experience the power of spiritual momentum.  Make the small changes every day you need to make to lay your daily brick, and in time you’ll have a wonderful edifice housing your dreams and the best life that awaits you there.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Sister Newbold acknowledges a common singles attitude: Identifying yourself by what you don’t have.  When you do that, you’ll live in a space where you’re deficient.  Sister Newbold’s response is an effective one: Live in a space where you see yourself as you’ll be, because that’s how God sees you.  By living “as though” God’s promises are fulfilled, you can be joyful now.

Sister Newbold recognizes the difficulty of reconciling as yet unfulfilled promises with the reality of LDS singles life.  Her answer is to live “as though” those promises have been fulfilled, though she admits that’s challenging.  She writes, “Given that God is a God of promises, it becomes hard at times for me to reconcile why certain promises have not yet been fulfilled in my life.”

I’m sure many singles can relate.  I myself felt that challenge a few months ago.  In the midst of my most challenging semester of school ever, questions about my patriarchal blessing began to feel more demanding.  And given my age, I began to wonder how my promised blessings will ever come to me.

Sure, it’s easy to say, “Well, sometimes patriarchal blessings get fulfilled in eternity.” But that doesn’t apply to the married life the Lord promised me.  Very clear and unambiguous language speaks of my temple marriage in this life and actions my children and posterity will take in this life.  These and other blessings are promised to me in this life, not the next.

Given I’m in my late 40s and not getting any younger, questions of how those promises would be fulfilled troubled me.  At the time, I really struggled with those questions.  Now I simply feel a quiet confidence somehow it’ll all happen.

Sister Newbold’s answer to that challenge, as mentioned earlier, is to live “as though” promised blessings have arrived.  How do we do that?  Sister Newbold shares three suggestions.

First, she suggests considering a variety of promises.  LDS singles tend to fixate on the marriage they by definition don’t have right now.  That focus blinds them from seeing other promised blessings they already have, many of which they take for granted.  Recognizing these less appreciated but bountiful blessings invites gratitude and trust God will keep all His promises.

Second, she suggests recognizing God’s hand in our lives.  Many in today’s world focus on what they lack, and as long-time audience members will tell you, your focus becomes your reality.  Focusing on lack creates a reality of scarcity, which inhibits the ability to feel joy.  But focusing on what you have creates a reality of abundance.  I really like how Sister Newbold extends that idea to the sacrament.

Third, Sister Newbold suggests helping the Lord keep His promises to others through Spirit-directed service.  When you follow the Spirit’s promptings to help others, you can help answer their prayers.  You can find joy in being the Lord’s hands.

Honestly, I appreciate a perspective centered on our focus rather than the traditional and highly unhelpful ”Just hold faithful, and everything will be right in the next life.”  Additionally, Sister Newbold readily admits that “trusting in His promises is not always an easy choice.”

She also says “living ‘as though’ will look different for everyone.”  I suspect that’s only true in the particulars.  I could summarize what that looks like for her as making and keeping as many covenants as she can, in essence living all of the gospel she can.  I think that would describe living “as though” for any LDS single.

God will keep every promise made to every one of us.  He has thousands of years of experience doing just that for the generations that came before us.  And the Spirit can remind us of moments when He’s kept promises in our own lives.  So we can trust He’ll keep every as yet unfulfilled promise.  When we live“as though” by walking with faith He’ll do just that, we can be instruments in fulfilling His purposes, all the while experiencing the quiet confidence that somehow it’ll all happen for us.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

What an appropriate background for a broadcast tailored to singles!  Many singles believe they need a miracle to move the mountains in their lives.  As I studied his address in preparation for the broadcast this weekend, I could see how very appropriate President Nelson’s remarks were for singles.  Truly, faith can move mountains no matter the challenge.

Many singles wonder how the blessings they yearn to have can ever be theirs.  I love how President Nelson’s response to that reality begins with basic principles: “Everything good in life—every potential blessing of eternal significance—begins with faith.”  Deny not the power of God, and your faith unlocks God’s power in your life.

I then really love how he goes to Alma’s discourse on faith in the Book of Mormon.  Alma doesn’t ask us to hit a home run our first time up to bat.  He simply asks us to experiment.  All he asks us to do is to try.

And you don’t need anything more than what you have right here right now.  President Nelson quotes Alma’s encouragement to “exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe” (Alma 32:27).  You don’t need the whole toolbox of perfection.  Just step forward with the portion you already have, even if that portion is simply the desire to have a portion.

And here’s the beautiful part: You don’t need to be perfect to change your life.  You have everything you need to take the next step right now towards the better life you want.  It starts when you believe that truth.  President Nelson began his remarks on faith with that very idea.  As he taught,”

The place to start is wherever you are, and you can do that today.

Isn’t that’s exactly how many singles view the challenges before them, as the tallest mountain ever?  Yet Christ can give anyone the power to scale that mountain.

That happens for you when you exercise faith in Him.  Faith is a principle of action, and that means you must do the work to get the result you want.  President Nelson acknowledged as much when he declared,

He then lists five steps to increase faith and the access it provides to God’s power.

1. Study
   
2. Believe
   
3. Act
   
4. Partake of sacred ordinances
   
5. Ask God for help
   

I’d list those five steps differently, but we talk about the same things here on Joy in the Journey Radio.  First, learn how to change your thinking to get better results.  Get grounded in the fundamentals of what you’re trying to do.  Then believe in your power to change and to move closer to the life you want.  Then put that belief into action.  Along the way, practice regular rituals to keep yourself centered on the covenant path as well as your goals.  And partner with the Lord Who can make more out of your life than you can alone.  Changing your life is simple once you understand the different pieces of the puzzle and begin putting that puzzle together.

Whatever mountain stands before you, don’t focus on the obstacle.  Look instead for the opportunity.  Stand tall seeking ways in which your growing faith — even if it’s no more than a desire to have a greater portion — can grow more.  As the Savior taught, “Seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7).

Faith really can move mountains.  Nothing is impossible for the Lord, and He will grant you access to His power when you have faith in Him.  When you do, He’ll show you the changes you need to make to secure the righteous blessings you desire.  He’ll support you as you progress towards those blessings.  And one day you’ll have them every one.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

The answer my stake president gave included a twist.  He extended the ideas of agency and God’s respect for agency in a way that promotes faith in our use of agency.  And the conclusion, if you honestly desire to do right, is to let faith guide you through whatever challenges you face in life.

We all have the choice of how we’ll act when confronted with challenges; that’s agency.  And agency means not everyone will choose unicorns and rainbows.  Some will choose to inflict hardship and even pain on others.

But agency is independent, meaning the choices others make don’t determine our own.  We might choose in response to what others choose, but we don’t have to.  We can make a completely irrational choice, because the agency we each have is independent.

That independence is vitally important because it transforms this life into a test to “prove [us] herewith, to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us]” (Abraham 3:25).  That independence allows every choice we make in life to be one of faith.  Will we choose to exercise faith in God?  Or will we choose a different path?

The question we ultimately face in the midst of any challenge is one of faith.  In many cases, not knowing the end from the beginning contributes to the challenge confronting us.  If we choose the path of faith, will we have a happy ending?  That question speaks to the essential part of walking by faith; how could faith be faith if you always knew how your choice would result before you made it?  In this way, every choice we make in life is one of faith.

When we view our choices through this lens, choosing faith becomes easier regardless of the challenge confronting us.  For example, the older I get as an LDS single, the more I face the question of whether the blessings of marriage and family will ever be mine.  My patriarchal blessing describes those promises, worded such that the fulfillment is in this life, not the next.  But the older I get, the more single I seem to be and the less likely those promises seem to be true.

So what do I do?  Do I continue in the path of faith believing in promises that seem less and less likely to come true with each passing day?  Or do I surrender to doubt, discouragement, and despair in the belief those promises are not true?  Ultimately my question of what to choose in the face of my challenge is a question of faith.  Will I choose faith in God?  Or will I choose another path?

You could extend that application to any challenge.  Ultimately there comes a moment in any challenge when you must decide what you believe.  Will you choose to believe God?  Or will you choose to believe a different voice?

I’ve faced that point multiple times in my life.  I haven’t been perfect, but ultimately I’ve always chosen to believe God, even when that choice meant great sacrifice or hardship.  And God has always supported me.  Moreover, God hasn’t just seen me through; the man I am on the other side has always been better than the one I was before.

Ultimately every choice you make is one of faith.  Will you choose faith in God?  Or will you choose a different path?  Thinking on your life and remembering times when God supported you after you chose Him makes it easier to choose Him again.  So let faith guide you through whatever challenge you face in your life.  Walking in faith will open you to feel God’s love for you, see God’s hand move to support you, and allow God to make more out of your life than you can yourself.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

That said, the smart tough get going long before the going gets tough.  They don’t just wait for the waves of life to crash against them and hope for the best.  They anticipate their challenges and prepare for them.  They embrace a vision that drives them to do more and to be more.  They don’t just perform; they super-perform.  They understand that life is so short and so marvelous the only real decision is to go big or go home.

To start, let’s step back from the whole making-goals-for-the-new-year routine and adjust our approach.  Quite frankly, too many of us have simply played out ineffective habits that don’t produce the results we really want in life.  You need to step outside yourself and see everything anew.

And the first thing you need to see anew is yourself.  Too many people refuse to go big because that vision doesn’t match how they see themselves.  Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar often said, “You cannot consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”

So are your dreams of your best life small or big?  And how do they compare with how you see yourself?  Do you see yourself as capable of accomplishing great things?  Or do you see yourself as a nobody, a failure, or someone who’ll just never have success?  If you find it hard to dream big, examine your self-image.  If you see yourself as unworthy or incapable, you’ll struggle to believe — and I mean really believe — you can achieve anything great in your life.  So before you start setting goals, you need to get good with you.

Once you’re good with you so the way you see yourself matches big dreams, only then can you truly dream big.  That’s because a poor self-image fetters your dreams within self-imposed restrictions.  When you free yourself from those self-imposed restrictions, you feel liberated to achieve the full measure of your potential.  And it’s an empowering feeling.

However, most never get to that point.  They keep listening to their biological hardwiring say, “Yeah, but ....”  Truly, that voice is designed to keep you safe.  But the longer you listen to that voice, the more your self-imposed restrictions that begin with “Yeah, but” will keep you living far beneath your potential.  “Safe” isn’t really safe.  Risky is the real safe.

Let go of your fears, your disappointments, your inadequacies, your failures, your excuses, and everything else keeping you from the life you want.  No one achieves anything big by accident.  Big results call for intentional choices, and big dreams can drive the choices that produce big results.

Notice I haven’t said anything yet about setting goals.  That’s because it’s pointless to go after a target before you’re properly prepared.  If you want to climb Mount Everest, for example, don’t wear shorts and sandals.  Be smart and bundle up.

The same is true about goals.  Before you announce any New Year resolutions — or really any goal at any time — make sure you have the right foundation of being good with you and unchaining yourself from the self-imposed limitations of small dreams.  Only when you think big and dream big can you then live big.

Living big doesn’t mean what it appears on the surface.  It doesn’t mean living outside your means or suddenly achieving greatness in a single bound.  Living big means taking small steps every day and celebrating the daily wins you encounter along the way.  Real success is the daily accumulation of those seemingly insignificant small wins.

So go big or go home.  Life is too short and too marvelous to waste on small potatoes.  Supersize your life by getting good with you, releasing the restrictions on your dreams, and then setting goals to achieve and celebrate the daily wins in your life.  When you do, you’ll grow yourself into living big.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

It helps me to remember I am not on my journey through life alone.  But it helps even more to vocalize that to someone.

A couple of weeks ago I had an extended conversation with my stake president.  Given my calling as his executive secretary, my recent struggles with singleness especially concerned him.  But I found that vocalizing my faith to someone who shares it filled me with an extra measure of strength that I previously did not know.

And how I needed that strength!  It’s one thing to believe the promises of the Lord when you seem to have all the time in the world.  But as you age and that window of youthful opportunity gets smaller and smaller, it gets harder and harder to believe.

But whatever difficulty or ease we each may have in believing does not change the essential truth of His promises.  That thought gives me courage, and so it can to you as well.  The Lord will fulfill every single one of His promises to you [pun intended].  So great will be your blessing that, when that glorious day finally comes, you’ll wonder how it ever was that you doubted Him.

How do you believe that?  How do you generate such faith in the Lord and in His promises that you continue to believe fervently even when everything around you seems to say the exact opposite?

You must first approach the Lord.  We must walk in the ways of the Master Who still has power to calm the waves and the storms around us.  Then you must take action.  You can’t just wish and wait, expecting your blessings to come.  To increase your faith, you must increase your action.  To believe Him more, you must walk more in the covenant path.

As I reflect upon my own performance, I quickly see my shortcomings.  That’s not surprising given my lifelong status as a walking construction zone.  But perfection is not about performance; it’s about persisting towards proximity to Christ.  As we keep trying to follow Him and come closer to Him, He gives us strength to endure well the time before our blessings come, whether that time be short or long.

In the post from two years ago, I said, “If all of us were to step back and observe the situation, we’d see that all fear does is prevent us from taking the next step in our journey.  But whatever your fears are, you still control what response you will provide.  Will you allow your fear to control you and cower from your next step?  Or will you control you and take that next step?”

The moments I experience now try me more than the moments I encountered two years ago.  But reading those words from two years ago now gives me added strength to endure well my more trying moments in the present and added hope my moments in the future will still be brighter and more glorious than I could ever imagine.

The Lord will grant you the tender mercies you need to face your fears just as He has for me.  He will help you to trust Him.  And when you truly trust Him, you can walk by faith even if your path is upon the very water that waves against you in the storm.  When you trust Him, He will show you your diligence and patience will not go unrewarded.  When you trust Him, He will make you more and more equal to whatever challenge confronts you.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Whatever the reason, I'm learning not to question promptings to do good but rather simply to follow them.  I'm learning to trust, without seeing the end, that the end will be better than I ever could have imagined it.  I'm learning to trust that the blessings I long for most in my life will come, as Elder Holland declared, by and by.

It's easy for all of us to get so absorbed in our own trials that we lose perspective.  And with that loss of perspective often comes also the loss of another sight — one that sees the way forward.

Many singles feel so burdened by the loneliness and heartache of singles life that all they see in their future is an eternity of loneliness and heartache.  Such an outcome should not surprise.  After all, your focus becomes your reality.

Singles who know the depth of that despair from seeming ever so out of reach of desired blessings intimately know loneliness and heartache.  So of course singles would feel comforted and appreciative of Elder Holland's early and earnest recognition of that familiarity.

But notice what immediately followed.  Elder Holland was just as eager and earnest in recognizing the depth of despair many trapped in a lonely marriage feel, seemingly ever so out of reach of escape from their familiarity with loneliness and heartache.

Without recognizing the pain others feel, it's easy to become so absorbed in our own pain that we can't see anything else.  Our pain becomes so enlarged we think it not only fills our world but that it is the world.

That's one of the comforting aspects of Elder's Holland's remarks.  He reminds us that, regardless of our individual situations, we all feel pain.  We all ache under the burden of trial.  We all long for relief.

Yet we often pray for freedom and relief on our schedule rather than for faith to rely on God's.  As we plead with heaven to lighten our load, our pleadings will be answered, though sometimes not how or when we would wish.

As Elder Holland reminds us all,

But then Elder Holland cut straight to the truth at the crux of the matter.

How did people come to believe that all suffering is necessarily bad?  Whatever its source, Elder Holland rightly suggests some suffering isn't bad.  In fact, I dare to declare some suffering is necessarily good.

No doubt those steeped in their own pain will find it difficult to believe any suffering could be good, let alone necessarily good.  As already noted, it's easy to be so absorbed in one's own troubles that it's difficult to see how those troubles could ever be stepping stones to tranquility.

And yet that's precisely why some pain is necessarily good.  Henry Ward Beecher once said our troubles are "the tools by which God fashions us for better things."  It is through our trials that we become refined and more of our best selves.  It is through our trials that we develop the characteristics of godhood.  It is through our trials that we come to know God.

How else could He be known?  Elder Holland says as much when he declared,

We all have pain in this life.  But when we look beyond our own pain to see the pain in others, we find it easier to see our own in perspective.  We find it easier to reach out to help others.  We find it easier to see meaning and purpose in our own suffering.  And we find it easier to trust God through bad seasons as well as good ones.  We find it easier to walk in faith and confidence that the promised blessings will come to us by and by.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

But an OK life never rises above mediocrity and won't ever be great or phenomenal.  Most settle for mediocrity, but you don't have to accept an OK life.  You can be phenomenal.  You can live your best life.

To realize the reality you want to have outside of you, you must do the work to change what's  inside of you.  So stop waiting and start working.  Your best life awaits you.

Most people have a limited life because they have limited thinking based on limiting assumptions.  And because of how we're all biologically hardwired to operate, those assumptions lead to habits producing the same results most mediocre lives have.

Do you believe you're the victim of choices others make?  Do you believe you just aren't good enough to live your dreams?  Do you believe your best days are behind you?  Do you believe your happiness depends on what happens outside yourself?  If so, you're likely not in control of life.  Rather, life is in control of you.

But just as you can choose thinking that limits you, you can choose thinking that empowers you.  You really can turn your life around because you are a child of the Creator of the universe endowed with His unlimited potential and the wondrous gift of agency.  You can and do choose for yourself.

So you can choose to accept responsibility for the choices you've made that have brought you the life you have now.  When you do, you begin to own your life.  And that's when everything can begin to change for you.  You can further that change by deciding what you want, knowing clearly why you want it, and then committing yourself to excellence in literally everything you do.

You need that foundation to effect the changes you want to see outside yourself.  Too many people (who usually live limited mediocre lives) think their lives will improve when their external circumstances do.  They work directly on external changes, but that's all backwards.  To change your life on the outside, you must first change your life on the inside.

That means you must get good with you.  You must dig deep enough inside of you to uncover the true root of your problem, the seeds of mediocre thinking sprouting into the mediocre habits producing your mediocre life.  You must learn how you were biologically designed to function so you can leverage it instead of continually fighting against it.

We all broadcast an energy to others, and what you have inside determines the quality of that energy.  To broadcast an attractive energy, what's inside of you must be attractive.  Stop trying to escape singles life and start embracing it and making the most of it.  Love yourself but also commit to doing whatever it takes to better yourself.  Achieving that balance is the essence of obtaining your best life.

Pursuing that balance won't be easy, because challenges will always threaten your desired transformation.  That's why you must continually refresh your thinking and your determination to keep after it.

Believe your best is yet to come, that the blessings you want are real and yours.  Let go of trying to manage every detail and just enjoy the ride.  Live in the moment, live with intention, and live in possibility while you work for probability.  It's balancing the fantastic with the practical.

And the best way I've found to do that is practicing a ridiculous, sickening work ethic.  The grind is amply named, and you need to do it every day.  Use your agency to choose to keep after it.  Never quit.  Never surrender.  Never stop until you win.

Most people live mediocre lives centered on satisfaction of self because that's what they choose.  Those who live phenomenal lives centered on contribution to others have their best life because that's what they choose.  Your best life awaits you.  When you choose to take control of your life, get good with you, and keep after it, you too can live the phenomenal life that is your best life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Procrastination is one way our biological hardwiring maintains our status quo.  “Yeah,” it says, “that dream sounds great, but we’ll get to that someday.  Right now we’ve got other things we need to do.”  And as long as we keep accepting that excuse for not living our dreams, we’ll never live our dreams because they’ll never come true.

There are only seven days in the week, and someday isn’t one of them.  When we quit tolerating some day and insist on today, we can move our dreams closer to reality.

That has been the kernel of my struggle for so many years.  It’s perhaps the most concise explanation for why I don’t yet have all my dreams fulfilled.  I too often tolerate lack of progress.  But I also struggle as many others do with fitting everything I want to do into my day.

Part of that comes from having so many dreams that making substantial progress on any of them is difficult.  There’s just too many objectives vying for the limited space in my calendar.  And abandoning any them is even more difficult because, as I mentioned earlier, I can’t help but dream big — big not just in the extent of any single dream but also in my quantity of dreams.

I dream of an eternal marriage to a wonderful, faithful LDS woman who sees in me my virtues more than my vices.  I dream of an LDS culture that fully accepts singles as well as marrieds.  I dream of a vibrant LDS singles support network.  I dream of a career in higher education through which I inspire the next generation to make the world a better place.  I dream of building businesses generating overflowing wealth to support whatever my community needs.  I dream of writing books and producing other products that help people live lives filled with more joy and satisfaction.

And my list goes on.  Like I said, I can’t help but dream big.  All the actions required to bring all my dreams into reality can’t possibly fit inside the fixed space of a 24-hour day or even a single week, month, or year.  And so it’s easy to accept that “voice” from my biological hardwiring that says, “You can do that someday.”

Ultimately, this fight — the fight within each of us — revolves around standards.  What standards will we tolerate for the life we’ll live?  The dreams we all have of a wonderful future necessitate change; otherwise we wouldn’t have those dreams.

But all results come only from action.  Tolerating excuses that our dreams will happen someday keeps pushing the realization of our dreams further and further into the future.

That’s because someday never comes.  Choosing to accept the excuse of someday is choosing to accept a standard of living life outside our dreams, and a standard of joy and satisfaction in life far below what they could be.  The joy and satisfaction of living our dreams will come only after we choose not to tolerate anything below the standards of our dreams.

We Latter-day Saints are familiar with standards.  We often link them with blessings.  Those who live the standards get the blessings that come from obedience.  Those who don’t live the standards don’t.

Ultimately, standards serve another purpose.  Standards provide boundaries that distinguish who belongs in the community and who doesn’t.  In like manner, the standards required for our dreams determine whether we’ll live them or not.  When we live by those standards, we move closer to our dreams.  When we don’t, we don’t.

If you want to live your dreams, you need to raise your standards.  Never tolerate someday.  Always tolerate nothing less than progress — even if it’s only a little each day — towards making your dreams reality.  When you stop focusing on what others did or didn’t do and start focusing on what you can do, you’ll start to feel the power that comes from moving towards your dreams.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.