Yet far too many of us LDS singles choose bondage.  We choose to keep habits of thinking that hold us back.  We choose habits of seeing the obstacles instead of the opportunities.  We choose habits of living under the oppression of a victim mentality instead of the liberation of a victor mentality.  We are in many ways our own worst obstacle.  If only we could get out of our own way!

And that’s the irony of it all.  We can get out of our own way.  We can break free from the bondage of a lesser life because we are free to choose for ourselves.  We simply need to make the right choices.

I know some of you are scoffing at that idea right now.  You’re thinking your freedom isn’t like a light switch you just turn on and off at will.  Real life, you’re thinking, isn’t like that.  There’s so much affecting your life you don’t control.

I used to think that way, back when I didn’t enjoy my life.  What I couldn’t see then that I clearly see now is how my choices in how to think brought me the reality I was living.  The way of thinking I embraced in those days discounted my gift of agency.

I didn’t see how my habitual choice to focus on the negative created the negative energy I broadcast to others around me.  I didn’t see how my habitual choice to look constantly at my obstacles prevented me from seeing my opportunities.  I didn’t see how my habitual choice to embrace a victim mentality kept me from living a life of victory.

The truth is your focus determines your reality.  When you focus on the negative, you have a negative reality.  When you focus on the positive, you have a positive reality.  Because you choose your focus, you also choose your reality.

And here’s more truth: Most of your choices you don’t make consciously.  Rather you choose out of habit.

About 97% of everything you do on a day-to-day basis is simply a habit playing itself out.  Habits don’t require you to think about what you do when you do it.  You can, but you don’t have to.  That’s the beauty of habits.  They automate sequences of action so you can actually live life.

But your best life is a life lived by intention, one you consciously choose.  Because you choose habitually 97% of the time, you choose consciously only 3% of the time.  That suggests you can’t live your best life, but you can because you choose your habits.

When you understand how habit works and then make conscious choices to embrace more effective habits — especially in how you think — you really can choose your life because you choose the elements that together create the life you have.

The moment I realized that truth was a pivotal turning point in my life when everything changed for me.  I had a life I didn’t want because I chose the elements that combined according to natural law to create the reality I had.  And it all came back to how I chose to think.

Sure, those choices were by and large habitual.  But I chose my habits.  In the very least, by choosing not to improve an existing habit, I by default chose not to embrace a better one.

That moment when I consciously chose to own my life turned everything around for me.  That’s because I started making choices that were more conducive to the reality I wanted.  And that’s a choice you can make as well because you have the same gift of agency.

Don’t depreciate that gift.  Choose to own your life.  Choose to break yourself free of the habits of thinking producing a reality you don’t want.  You don’t have to live that way.  You don’t have to settle.  When you learn how to leverage your gift of agency to your advantage, you can live a phenomenal life, irrespective of the choices others make.  You can make your life extraordinary.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

That one part is completely true.  They are torturing themselves.  Your focus always determines your reality, so when you focus on what you don’t have, your reality becomes one of lack and emptiness.  Because each one of us has agency, we choose our focus.  And that means we choose our reality.  Indeed, these sisters are torturing themselves.  Their wanting serves only to amplify the effect.

Of course, that truth doesn’t excuse married Church members from lacking sensitivity.  In recent years, I’ve noticed more married Church members displaying more sensitivity.  Nevertheless, not every ward is like that.  We still have work to do.

In the meantime, it’s productive for all of us to shift our focus towards what Mother’s Day was intended to celebrate.  All of us have a mother who bore us and a mother who raised us.  For some those two women are one and the same.  But either way, we can each answer this question: “How’s your mother?”

Just as focusing on your lack produces a reality of scarcity, focusing on what you have produces the opposite reality — one filled with abundance and plenty.  Your life shifts substantially in the improvement direction when you exchange your expectation for appreciation.  It’s all starts with an attitude of gratitude.

So many create disappointment by expecting too much.  We want, want, want. And very often what we want, however righteous that desire, centers around something we don’t have.  Because our focus always determines our reality, focusing on what we don’t have produces a reality of lack.  And the more deeply we want, the more deeply felt that lack becomes.

But exchanging your expectation for appreciation creates something amazing.  By constantly expressing gratitude, we can shift our focus towards what we do have.  And focusing on what we do have creates a reality of abundance.  The more deeply we appreciate, the more deeply felt gratitude becomes.  We can bathe in the joy of feeling richly blessed.

That feeling is completely legitimate because it results from how we’re constructed.  Your focus determines your reality.  That principle applies to everything, including Mother’s Day.  Focus on what you don’t have, and you’ll take no joy in the celebration because your reality will be so full of emptiness you won’t want to celebrate.  On the other hand, if you can focus on the good about the day, then you can have a joyful reality you’ll want to celebrate.

I know that can be challenging.  As I said before, not every ward displays sensitivity to singles.  It’s hard to stay positive when the dream you don’t have but most desire gets highlighted every week at church.  I know what it’s like to get constant reminders of what you lack rubbed in your face every week.  I know it’s hard.

I also know what hard means.  It doesn’t mean impossible.  It just means difficult.  And difficult can become easy when you partner with the Lord.

The Lord can guide your focus towards the blessings you have today because your mother sacrificed.  When you trade your expectation for appreciation, you open yourself to receive more of the joy life has to offer.

And if your relationship with your mother needs work, you can focus on what you can do to improve that relationship.  Even good relationships can be improved, so focusing on doing something in that arena is good advice for all of us.  Even if your mother has passed on to the other side, you can still find ways to express appreciation and improve your relationship on your end.

So I ask once more, “How’s your mother?” which is really just another way of asking “How’s your focus this Mother’s Day?”  Your focus will always determine your reality.  So make the positive choice.  When you embrace a positive focus, you’ll receive a positive reality.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

The meeting promptly ended.  With that connection suddenly cut, I felt the loneliness of spiritual vacuum.  “What a great ending to my Sabbath,” I sarcastically remarked to myself.

That episode got me pondering, as my life events frequently do.  The answer for spiritual emptiness is to keep reaching after the light, even when confronted with the blackest of darkness.  That’s also the answer for emptiness in every other part of life, which is too short for you not to follow your bliss.

In reaching after light to combat the Zoom bomb darkness, I opened The Book of Mormon.  There I found this great verse: “And it came to pass that the high priest said unto him: Why do ye go about perverting the ways of the Lord? Why do ye teach this people that there shall be no Christ, to interrupt their rejoicings?” (Alma 30:22, emphasis added).

This is an interrogation of anti-Christ Korihor, who later appeared before Alma, the high priest of the Church.  Note the repeated use of that word rejoicing in Alma’s rebuke: “And now, if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth, that we may have rejoicings in the joy of our brethren?” (Alma 30:34, emphasis added).

Alma knew what brought rejoicing to his spirit.  He rejoiced in maintaining himself within and helping others along the covenant path.  And he refused to alter his course.  He was determined in his spirit to follow his bliss.

We too can follow our bliss, and not just for our spirits but also for our hearts, minds, and bodies.  For example, depending on who you’re hearing, 60-80% of all Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs.  Clearly many are not following their bliss.

It’s no wonder when you consider the role of habit.  We’re biologically hardwired to have a habit.  And for many, that habit is to list wherever the waves of life carry them, often away from their bliss.  So many are mindlessly marching in a routine routing them to and through a life of mediocrity.

If that describes you, you can break free.  You can live your best life, a life of contribution, fulfillment, and meaning.  Life is short.  Don’t waste it working some job just to pay the bills.  Make your move towards making your mark in a job you love!  Start moving towards your best life!

“But with massive unemployment from the pandemic,” some of you complain, “it’s harder than ever to find new work.”  I’m not advocating stupidity.  Keep your job paying the bills until you can upgrade.  Just don’t stagnate.  Do something every day to move closer to your dreams and goals.  Life is short.  Follow your bliss.

That goes for every area of life.  If you don’t like your lack of education or a certain skill, change it.  If you don’t like your romantic situation, change it.  If you don’t like your friends, change that.  Quit running through life on autopilot.  Life is short.  Start using your agency and make the changes you need to follow your bliss.

Of course, when you correctly understand them, your covenants will never obstruct you from following your bliss.  If you think they do, then what you think is your bliss really isn’t.  The sacred covenants we make at baptism and in the temple will never keep you from your bliss but instead sharpen your focus in following your true bliss.

So keep on keeping your covenants, and within that framework, make the changes you need to follow your bliss.  Life is short.  Don’t let anything, whether it be little lies excusing you from moving closer to your dreams and goals or big life events like COVID-19, stop you from living your best life.  Follow your bliss.  When you do, you’ll exercise the power of agency you’ve always had within you.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

But you can still own your life.  You can still take responsibility for yourself and the results you have in your life.  And today is the perfect opportunity to do just that because today is April Fool’s Day.  Now, I’ll admit social distancing and sequestering have radically changed the landscape.  But a change in landscape should never signal us to surrender positive energy.  Now more than ever we should be always up for fun.

Many people don’t associate staying at home with fun.  They think about going out to restaurants, stores, malls, parks, concert venues, and the like.  Many of us approach April Fool’s Day the same way, conjuring images of practical jokes played on people and often in front of other people.

But that was yesterday.  Today the landscape is different.  We need to practice social distancing and sequester ourselves in our homes as much as possible.  And those who refuse to change their thinking to match this new landscape will experience untold and unnecessary hardship.

Long time listeners to this program are familiar with these principles in relation to helping LDS singles find joy regardless of their circumstances.  For example, many singles who leave YSA land without getting married experience a difficult transition into SA world.  Some don’t even transition; they go inactive or leave the Church altogether.

That’s because their YSA thinking doesn’t match the new SA landscape, and they simply respond to their biological hardwiring which encourages them to maintain the status quo.  They keep thinking the same way, and that just leads them to leave.  But if these singes would change their thinking to match their new landscape, they could experience a greater amount of joy despite their circumstances.

We can begin to capture much of the joy we’ve been missing by owning our lives and looking for the opportunity amidst the obstacle.  I demonstrated that attitude this morning in my Daily Dose video.  Is it cheesy and silly?  Absolutely.  And that’s OK, because I refused to let my current situation keep me from having a spot of fun.

You too can refuse to allow your current situation to keep you from experiencing joy amidst adversity.  You can still celebrate April Fools Day.  Will it be the same?  Of course not.  But joy is still joy, no matter how it comes.

Presented with this knowledge, each of us now confronts this question: Will you own your life?  Or put another way, will you take responsibility for the results you experience in your life?  Will you refuse to allow your circumstances to dictate your attitude and perspective?

I choose to own my life.  My circumstances will be what they will be, but they will never dictate my choices.  I choose to live with intention, not on autopilot.  I choose to produce more than I consume, not just consume.  I choose phenomenal, not mediocre.  I choose life, not death.  I choose faith, not fear.  I choose hope, not despair.  I choose love, not hate.  I choose joy, not sorrow.

And so can you.  Decide today you will own your life.  Decide that no matter your circumstances you will be always up for fun.  Then follow through with that decision by taking advantage however you can of the moments for fun that come your way.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

But automation isn’t all roses.  It keeps us inside a “safe” zone where we can roam freely without fear of pain or other potential pesky problems like death.  As great as that sounds, growth is never pain- or problem-free.  If we don’t step outside our comfort zone, we’ll never approach our potential, let alone achieve it.

Fortunately, you have choice.  Yours need not be a mediocre life on autopilot.  You can be phenomenal, and it starts when you step outside your comfort zone to embrace the new you.

Admittedly, the prospect of stepping outside one’s comfort zone literally terrifies many of us.  The mind quickly presents memories of past pains that linger on into the present.  It’s like our brain is saying, “Hey, remember this?  You don’t want to go there; you might get hurt again!”

And that’s true.  You might.  But here’s another piece of truth: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  You can stay inside your little hobble with its practically guaranteed pain-free life.  And you’ll live that life first with the repressed yearning of wanting more and then with the regurgitating regrets of never responding to that call.

Again, the good news is you have choice.  If you want to have or be something more, you can have or be it.  You just need to be willing to pay the price in full and in advance to get it.

That’s how everything is.  If you want to see the show, you need a ticket.  But you’ll never get the ticket until you pay the price in full and in advance.  Only then do you get admitted to the show.

And that’s where most people get off the train.  That’s why most New Year’s resolutions don’t even last a week, let alone the whole year or even the first month.  The vast majority of us collide with that eternal truth and decide we’d rather be comfortable.  And so we revert back to our old habits and spend the rest of the year wishing we had a better life only to repeat the whole cycle again at the start of the next year.

Seriously, is that the life you want?  Do you want to go through the same motions over and over, always wondering why you can’t ever seem to escape that rut of failure?  Are you sick and tired of always getting less than what you want?  If you want a different life, you can have it.  You just need to be willing to pay the price to get it.

For many, that point doesn’t come until they get sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Only after that moment do they have resolve to push through the pain of growth, achieve their dreams, and become the embodiment of their potential.

And yeah, it’s scary.  You very well could get hurt again.  But you’ll never see the new you emerge unless you’re willing to risk.

Take love, for example.  Many burned in a romantic relationship retreat back to their hobble where they play the turtle in a shell.  These people will never know the love they dream about because they’re acting contrary to the nature of what they want.

You can’t have the amazing love we all dream about having without trust.  And trust wouldn’t need to exist unless there was something to lose.  Without opening yourself to be vulnerable, there’s no need for trust.  And without trust, there’s no way to have the deep love we all want in life.

Everything else worthwhile in life — the elements comprising your best life — operate on the same principle.  To achieve success, you must be willing to risk failure and all its attendant heartache, pain, and other assorted problems.  You must pay the price to get your ticket to the show.

And what a difference it makes when you do.  You can embrace a new you.  When you step outside your comfort zone and risk failure, you can experience the growth that will set you on the path to your best life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Many don’t believe that.  They assume life is the collection of circumstances outside their control.  But that’s why many people aren’t all that happy.

Your focus determines your reality.  Because you can choose what you focus on, you can choose your reality.  True, most don’t choose their circumstances, but that never stopped anyone who lived joyfully from living joyfully.  These people lived their best life because they made different choices with the same circumstances.

Some of us should take a lesson from a farmer.  Farmers don’t choose their circumstances.  They have the soil and the water that’s available.  Their seeds for planting are whatever they are.  The weather will be whatever it will be.  So much of what’s needful for the harvest is outside their control.  Yet with hard work in what they can control, they produce bountiful harvests year after year.

In like manner, we haven’t chosen many of the circumstances of our lives.  What we have is what we have, and it’s often all we have.  But if we work hard in what we can control, we can produce harvests of truly joyful living year after year.  This is what I call your best life.

I can hear many of you now.  What exactly can we control?  Here’s my answer: Standards, attitude, approach.

It starts with standards.  You’ll never design your best life without knowing what’s acceptable and what’s not.  The best delineations between what you’ll tolerate and what you won’t are made after partnering with the Lord to get good with you.  Once you know and accept who you really are and what your personal ministry should be, you can best draw that line between what you’ll accept in your life and what you won’t.  The more clear you make that definition, the more able you’ll be to live the life you intend.

Once you know exactly what you want, you need resolve to do whatever it takes to get it (within the realm of covenant living, of course).  You need the attitude of the victor and not the victim.  That attitude will fire your imagination to design a life you’ll truly enjoy and pull you through to that fulfilling end when the road there gets tough.

Of course, attitude without action will never bring you achievement.  To live a life you design, you must take action.  Working smart as well as working hard requires attention to one’s approach.  Too often we think what we seek must come in one specific way.  But much of life is not path-dependent; there’s often more than one road leading to the top of the mountain.  And sometimes the road that’s best for us to travel is not the one we expect.

With these three elements in place — standards, attitude, and approach — you can decide what you want your life to be and feel the joy that comes from working to make it happen.  Usually that means taking small steps every single day to inch yourself closer to the life you dream.

That’s where many of us fall short.  We don’t do the little things everyday that can near us to our best life.  Then, after a larger block of time has passed, we can’t help but notice we’re left standing on the pier because our ship has long since sailed.

That’s where being clear about your standards, attitude, and approach holds its best value.  Once you’re crystal clear on those elements, what you need to do everyday will be obvious.  Performing those seemingly small and insignificant actions everyday will collect to create the very significant life you design for yourself.

So what are you waiting for?  Get clear, and then get going. None of this happens overnight.  But as you move closer to the life you design for yourself, you’ll feel the joy that comes from making progress.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Last week we discussed how to find your useful passions and get busy making other people’s lives better.  Until you do, you’ll never see the results you want to see from adopting a personal ministry.

But that’s true in every arena of life.  If you want results, you must take action.  And isn’t that what we all really want?  No matter where we are in life or what we’ve been through, at the end of the day we all want results.

How do we get results?  Results come from one and only one thing: action.  Too many of us are sitting on the sidelines waiting for God to act so we can receive results when in actuality God is waiting for us to act by using the agency and the talents He gave us to deliver our results to ourselves.

We must act.  When we know what we want out of life, we need to get down on it and get busy going after it.  Only then will we have our best life.

Most people do nothing to effect the change they want.  When life throws them a curve — and life will always throw you a curve — most people complain.  They complain about how unfair it is, how disadvantaged they are, or how luck doesn’t favor them.  And the only thing they do in addition to complain is complain some more!

But where does that leave them?  It leaves them at the station because they never got on the train; they never took action.  And therefore, they didn’t get results.  Results don’t come without action.  So if you don’t take any action, you don’t get any results.

In addition, your focus determines your reality.  That’s why people who constantly complain can never rid their lives of the misery and depression that prompts them to complain about how miserable and depressed they are.  When you focus on the negative, your reality will be filled with negativity.  The way to change your reality is to change your focus.  To have a positive reality, take action to focus on the positive.

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “Yeah, well, I took action and I didn’t get results.”  Maybe you asked someone out and got rejected.  Maybe you applied for a job you didn’t get.  Maybe you tried to stick to a weight-loss diet and couldn’t resist eating that pizza.  Whatever it was, you saw what you wanted, you took action to get it, and you fell flat on your face.

It’s true that if you don’t take action, you don’t get results.  But perhaps it would be better to say if you don’t take any different action, you don’t get any different results.  Your results are always consistent with the action you take.  So when you want different results, you need to change it up and take different actions, ones consistent with the results you want.

Is your life the same as it was two years ago?  If so, it’s because last year you didn’t do anything different than you did the year before.  And next year will be just like last year unless you start doing something different.  The next two, five, or even ten years of your life will be just like the last two, five, or ten years unless you start doing something different.

And this is where most people get stuck.  They know they need to do something different.  They just don’t know what that something is.

Enter partnering with the Lord stage left.  When you partner with the Lord, He’ll show you what you need to change.  “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5) — including the truth of the changes you need to make to move towards your best life.

In that effort, it’s best to look for the little things you need to change — the small habits you can practice every day that will move you in your desired direction.  After all, the big wins we want in life are just collections of the little wins accumulated consistently over time.

When you know what little habits you need to adopt every day, get down on it and stick with it.  Don’t wait for your blessings to appear magically.  Know the results you want, determine the actions you need to take to get those results, and then get down on it.  When you start to move in the direction of your goals and dreams, feeling that progress will invigorate you to do and be more.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

We all know the LDS single who’s so eager to be married that he or she instantly gravitates towards anyone who appears to promise a blessed end to single status.  Maybe you’ve even been that single yourself.

I was once all about finding that eternal companion but never actually finding her.  I felt like that hamster down at the pet store, always just spinning my wheels and never getting anywhere.  And I felt miserable.

I thought I was doing the right thing.  After all, our leaders have talked endlessly about the importance of marriage and family.  Our LDS culture is centered around family.  It made sense to go after it directly.

But that’s exactly the problem.  It doesn’t come when you pursue it directly.  It comes when you let it come to you.

We’re all hard wired to operate out of habit.  And what we do determines what we get.  So if we entertain less effective habits, we’ll keep getting less effective results.  And it won’t end until we replace the less effective habit with a more effective one.

Many LDS singles have the less effective habit of making a beeline for anyone appearing to promise hope for marriage.  But when you understand how everything works, you’ll realize you need to ditch the beeline.

Here’s how it works.  Marriage means the agency of another person is involved.  You can’t choose for others.  Someone else has to choose you.  That means the most you can do is influence that choice.

That’s why you keep hearing platitudes like “Just be yourself” or “Keep working on yourself.”  They’re all true up to a point.  Doing these things will influence the right person to choose you.

But beyond that point lies the reality where we all live.  This most important choice has many influences in addition to the one you exert.  And these other considerations outside your control can drown any hope of acquiring desired blessings.  Your challenge, then, is to exert your best influence, trusting the Lord to cross your path with someone who will choose you.  Are you up to it?

You can best rise to the challenge by letting go of pursuing marriage directly and adopting a personal ministry.  This really is your best approach for exerting your best influence.

Here’s why.  When you pursue marriage directly, you broadcast to everyone around you you’re all about marriage.  No one really wants to marry someone who’s more interested in some personal agenda.  So you come off appearing desperate.

When you drop the beeline and adopt a personal ministry, you’re about something bigger than yourself.  You let your best self shine while serving others.  Devoting yourself to your own personal ministry shakes off the scales of desperation so that others see you as someone interesting, someone worth getting to know better, maybe even share a life with.

Guess what? Now you’re influencing others to decide in your favor.

Other powerful influences exist, yes, but that’s where walking by faith comes in.  When you partner with the Lord, He’ll lead you to those with whom your best influence will be more than good enough.  That’s because they’ll hearken to the voice of the Spirit when He says, “Give this one a chance.”

Many LDS singles live in fear that their desired blessings won’t come.  But that’s no way to live.  It’s much more joyful to let go of directly pursuing marriage and instead pursue what will influence others to choose in your favor.

Devoting yourself to your own personal ministry can make the waiting more joyful, however long that waiting lasts.  Do you want just to endure to the end?  Or do you want to thrive?

Of course, you should keep looking for and pursuing opportunities that arise.  But your universe won’t be rotating around them.  So let go of directly pursuing marriage.  Let it come to you.  When you devote yourself to your personal ministry, you can embrace your best self.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

After church on Sunday, a member of the stake high council asked me if I were going to attend the singles activity later that day.  I confided that I haven't been attending because I don't feel welcome.  Why should I dress up in a stuffy shirt and tie to sit on benches that aren't that comfortable only to be all alone?  I can wear a T-shirt and sweat pants on my couch and be just as alone but far more comfy.  So why go?

In the ensuing conversation, I learned that he recognized the people hold the perspective of the dating forum.  I then shared with him some of what I’ve shared about the dating forum and the activity club many times in this forum.  We quickly came to agreement there, but then he simply repeated his invitation without any resolve to change anything.  I said I’d think about it.  Of course, I didn't go.

I did think about that conversation, though, during the following days.  Those thoughts led to an important realization: Clearly we see the problem in how singles view activities, but the problem will never be solved unless we take action.  But exactly what action is anyone supposed to take?  I’ve done this before and so know what to do.  But do my local leaders?  Based on the conversation I had Sunday, it doesn’t seem so.

What can be done to turn around a local singles group so that people choose the support network over the dating forum and the activities club?  That's the very question I’m going to answer right now.

The first thing you need to do is get buy-in from leadership.  Nothing happens in this church unless leadership is on board.  So you've got to get the vision of the support network yourself.  And then you must sell that vision to leadership.

And by leadership, I mean both married and single members serving in leadership positions.  Everyone from the stake presidency to the high council to the bishopric to any singles leaders serving on both stake and ward levels must adopt the vision of the support network.  Anyone who thinks their responsibility is just to calendar activities doesn’t have the vision.  You've got to work with them until they adopt the support network.

You’ll know they have the vision when they start playing their part in the support network.  Those attending activities will actively greet and welcome everyone they can.  They'll talk to people, helping them feel somebody cares enough to be interested in them.  They'll also look for those sitting by themselves, offering to sit with them or inviting them to join a larger group seated together.

Once leadership is on board, you’ve got to secure buy-in from the people.  That means you instill the vision of the support network in every single adult so that they do the same things leaders do — connecting with people and helping them feel supported.

Too often we think those in leadership positions do things no one else does.  In some respects that's true, but more often than not, leadership is something everyone should display.  Leadership is a choice, not a position.

And leadership in spreading the vision of the support network is something every single adult should practice.  Otherwise, you'll never have the support network.  The arrangement of everybody helping everybody happens only when everyone reaches out to everyone.  It can't be just those in leadership positions.  Everyone has a part to play because everyone matters.

Support networks take time to build because you must change the way people think.  And because we’re hardwired to follow habit, you're going to meet some resistance both from leaders who think their job is to do nothing more than plan activities and from singles who think in terms of the dating forum or the activities club.

That's why part of leadership’s role is to instill the vision of the support network in everyone.  You must tell people directly what you're trying to accomplish.  You must show them what can happen when everyone gets on board with the vision.  And you must invite them one by one to play their part in making that vision reality.

It won't be easy, and it will take time.  But it is possible.  I know because I’ve done it.  So be patient.  Keep working.  Love the people.  Accept nothing less than glory, and in time you’ll see the support network start to take hold.  You'll see people reaching out to each other.  You'll see the needs of people being met.  You’ll see that you can turn it around.  And you'll feel more of the Savior's love for one another.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Sometimes your dreams can seem so far away as to be unreachable.  So much remains to be done, and so much of that lies outside your control, that you wonder how you’ll ever arrive.  How could the blessings you desire ever be yours?

Very often there’s a real difference between how things feel and how things really are.  Sure, nothing worth having comes easy.  But sometimes the obstacles before you can seem bigger than they really are.  Only by stepping out of your comfort zone and rising to your challenges do you see how big they really are.

And that's when you find what you thought was insurmountable really is doable.  You just have to get started and take it one step at a time.  By consistently doing the small things that move you further in your journey, you can conquer any challenge set before you.  You can go the distance.

What drives those who achieve phenomenal results in life, those who make their dreams reality?  It’s vision.  Vision is different than sight.  Sight depends on what you see with your physical eyes.  But vision depends on what you see with your spiritual eyes — the eye of faith.

You begin by seeing yourself in a different way.  As we’ve frequently discussed, that requires you to think in new and different ways.  If you surround yourself with negativity, if your self talk is consistently negative, you'll find it hard to believe in possibility.  You'll find it hard to believe that your life could be any different than how it has been.  Only when your self talk is consistently positive and you surround yourself with positive energy will you be thinking in ways that allow you to see a brighter tomorrow for yourself.

But just seeing yourself differently isn’t enough.  You must believe that vision can become reality and that it can be yours — because the truth is that can!  Such belief comes from faith —  faith that you’re a child of God and that he loves you, faith that He wants you to succeed,  faith that He’ll help you realize your dream and become everything you’re capable of becoming.

When you have a vision of what you can become, that vision can drive you to do incredible things.  But you must make the conscious choice to do what is necessary every day to move yourself closer to the realization of your vision. You must adopt a habit of consistently doing what is necessary.

The so-called little things in life are really the big things.  It's the small actions performed every day that move us closer, inch by inch, to the reality our vision shows us.  Observed in one moment of time, those little actions may seem insignificant.  But collectively over time, those small actions done every day can comprise a considerable sum.

That's why you need the determination to do what’s necessary every day.  Never surrender.  Results come from action and nothing else.  When you fail to act, you don’t make the small contribution that over time adds up to a considerable sum.  Only by denying the natural man or woman who wants you to coast, to be satisfied with a life beneath the reality your vision shows you can you overcome mediocrity and achieve your fullest potential and the phenomenal life you dream of having.  You must be determined never to surrender.

But that determination can turn to frustration unless you begin to see the opportunities amid your obstacles.  Every obstacle comes with at least one opportunity.  Most people, however, never see that opportunity because they're too prone to look only at the obstacle.

As I’ve said many times, your focus determines your reality.  If all you see is the obstacle in front of you, then your reality will be one of obstruction.  But when you focus on seeking out the opportunity that comes with every obstacle, your reality will be one of opportunity.  And as the Savior once taught, “Seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7).

Only by gaining the vision of what your life can be and then resolutely moving towards it, though you move only inches a day, will your dreams ever become reality.  But that's what walking by faith is all about.  It's not living life based on what you see with your physical eyes.  It's living life based on what you see with your spiritual eyes.

When you walk by faith, taking each step with vision and determination to do what’s necessary and find the opportunity, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your dreams will one day be your reality because you choose to go the distance.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.