Make your life extraordinary

“Seize the day, boys!  Make your life extraordinary!”

Recently I was watching the classic film Dead Poets Society.  Not only is this film a classic from the 80s, it’s a great story with lots of great life lessons.

One of the first lessons comes early in the film.  Mr. Keating, the newly hired English teacher at a preparatory school for young men, has led the boys out of the classroom for his first lecture.  He gathers them around a display containing photographs of previous generations of students and dives into his lecture.

After inviting a student to read the first stanza of Robert Herrick’s oft-quoted poem “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” Mr. Keating draws the students into a discussion about the meaning of the poem.  Carpe diem is probably the best known Latin expression among the common populace today, most of whom don’t speak Latin.  Yet for as well known as the Latin phrase meaning “seize the day” is, few actually practice it.

And that was the whole point of Mr. Keating’s lecture.  We each have a window of opportunity while we live, and that opportunity is to seize the moment in front of us and make the most of it.  This was Mr. Keating’s message in his first lecture.  “Seize the day, boys!  Make your life extraordinary!”

Make the conscious choice

I’m not sure why it didn’t hit me earlier, but this is a perfect message of LDS singles.  Too many waste their lives away waiting for something wonderful to happen, as though the blessings they want in their life will appear magically at their front door.

Here’s the problem with that approach: It wastes opportunity.  The same agency that singles use to waste away their time waiting for their blessings is the same agency they could be using to make their lives extraordinary.

But most don’t make their lives anything, let alone extraordinary.  They simply flow with the waves of life, going wherever they’ll carry them.  This is the path of the natural man and the natural woman.  Simply following the impulse of the biological programming within our physical bodies is easy, and that programming would have us staying where it is “safe.”

But the extraordinary life doesn’t come to anyone who simply goes with the flow.  Rather it comes to those who will make their own waves to create the currents that carry them to the destination they desire.  They make conscious choices to act against the natural impulse to go with the flow.

---

Wield your greater power

Conscious choice is the key not only to making one’s life extraordinary but also to encouraging the blessings you want in your life to come into your life.  Notice I said encourage, not make.  Many blessings require the agency of another to decide in your favor.

That truth doesn’t diminish the greater power we each have to achieve the results we desire.  Too many focus on what is outside their control, and that focus belittles the power we each have to change our lives for the better and make them truly extraordinary.  In reality, many exercise their agency in accordance with what is presented to them.  And you choose what you present to them every single day (pun intended).

So what should you choose to present to others in order to attract the results you desire?  If you want an extraordinary life, then present the elements that will attract an extraordinary life.  This is more than just the activity you embrace in your life.  This is also, and perhaps more importantly, the assumptions and attitude you embody.

Focusing on what you can do will enable you to feel more of the power you truly have within you.  And by acting on that truth, by doing what you can do, you’ll feel more powerful more often.

---

Start with what’s interesting

When you make your life extraordinary, you make yourself more attractive.  So where do you start?  How do you start?

The extraordinary life is an attractive life, but it is also an interesting one.  So start by making your life more interesting.  And the easiest place to begin is with your own imagination.  What do you think makes a life interesting?  Put those things one by one in your life.  And don’t rely on what others think is interesting.  Follow what you yourself genuinely think is interesting.

Make your life extraordinary.  Take action to start living your life.  The more interesting you make your life, the more attractive it will be to others and the more enticed they will be to share it with you.  When you leverage the power you have in your own agency, you can make your life more than you imagined it could be.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

---

You can listen to the monologue for this episode of Joy In The Journey Radio for free by using the player here.  Feel free to continue the conversation by leaving a comment. Find out how to listen to all of this episode of Joy in the Journey Radio (as well as other full episodes) by going to the show page for this episode!  Alternatively, you can watch a clip from the full episode on the Joy in the Journey Radio channel on YouTube or Rumble.