Responsibility means being aware of and receptive to the consequences of the actions done and undone. It requires reconciling our feelings and actions to what we say we want.
Responsibility requires realizing what we are able to do. A great deal of the suffering we encounter and the joy we don’t encounter in life is due to an incorrect estimation of what we are able to do.
In this life, we are responsible for all the good we could do, all the suffering we could relieve, and becoming the person we could be if we were to fulfill our potential.
Purpose: the “why”
Joy comes from receiving what we value. What we value is a composite of our experience and knowledge, but also our perspective. Specifically, our perspective of our purpose—or what we choose to find important—is an important driver of what we value.
Joyful moments do not erase moments of pain and suffering—they make them worth it. We get to define not only what we do, but also why we do it. There exist whys that are strong enough to endure any what . There exist whys that are strong enough to produce joy in spite of any hardship.
Purpose and choice explain the massive difference between sacrifice and loss. Loss is something taken from you. Sacrifice is something you give, finding greater value in what you give than what you receive. The more committed you are to your choice and the greater the sense of value you find in your purpose, the more joy you will encounter through your sacrifice.
Our purpose is whatever we choose. It is difficult to underestimate how important our choice of purpose is to how much joy we experience. An optimal purpose will maximize your present joy given your circumstances and ensure your placement on the path to unlimited joy. A suboptimal purpose will vastly decrease the amount of joy you experience presently and also place a hard limit on the joy you can obtain in and after this life.
Seen this way, the search for your purpose in life is the choice between many paths, each with different outcomes. Only one leads to the best outcome. To our benefit, the search has already been conducted and the optimal path already determined. The gospel of Jesus Christ provides the path to obtain and fulfill the optimal purpose.
For our purposes in this chapter, we will refer to the Lord’s summarized description of his gospel: love God and love others. To love God, we must seek to be like him, which means an incessant dedication to self-improvement. To love others, we must make their benefit our principle concern. Making these things our purpose is the path to maximal joy.
What makes the right choice harder
For some people, choosing the optimal purpose in life is made difficult by the temptation to take a self-centered perspective. This is shortsighted, and any honest person exploring that path will quickly find that it doesn’t yield the joy and happiness it purports to. This is the path King Solomon walked.
Solomon’s main question was, “what is the purpose of life?” To find the answer, he purposefully set out to test every hypothesis he could think of. He tested pleasure, wine, women, property, and money, and found that none of these delivered enduring happiness that exceeded their cost (see Ecclesiastes 2). He tested wisdom and knowledge, and found that when weighed on the scales of personal benefit, the cost to obtain and exercise wisdom and knowledge exceeded the benefit.
Solomon’s principle conclusion was that the purposes pursued by most were nothing but vanity—without worth, empty, or fleeting.
Solomon correctly concluded that, for those who seek what this world can provide: “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour....” (Ecclesiastes 2:24)
Solomon drew so close to what he sought, but he never obtained it. Although he went farther in his pursuit than most who have dwelt on this earth, he stopped short of his final destination. Though he realized that setting one’s heart on the things this world provides is indeed vanity, he failed to discover the key to increasing joy. He realized that the pursuit of “wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18) He didn’t realize, however, that while it is possible to increase sorrow without increasing wisdom or knowledge, those whose sorrow comes in the pursuit of either will invariably also encounter commensurate joy. The key he failed to discover was that enduring joy sought for self can never be obtained.
Solomon failed to discover the value of serving others. Solomon sought to maximize his benefit from the world, not to the world. He focused on what he could receive instead of what he could give. Enduring joy can only be found in selfless love for others.
Like Solomon, those who only see this life in the context of what they get out of it will find only pain, disappointment, and emptiness. Though they may find temporary pleasure, it will eventually be taken from them, and they will conclude that it is better to never have been born and that the best they can do in this life is enjoy the things they have and to avoid the unnecessary complexity found in excess.
For those who are paying attention, it is clear that loving improvement and loving others is the clear path to maximal joy. What inhibits us isn’t confusion over that fact, but rather the challenge of seeing ourselves as capable of developing a character similar to God’s or having any sort of meaningful impact on the lives of others. The rest of this chapter focuses on believing in your divine potential.
You can’t believe in Jesus without believing people have divine potential
The Lord paid the price of the penalty of sins for those who believe in him. Was this his only purpose in coming to this earth?
Of at least equal importance was the outcome he delivered by living a perfect life in spite of being subject to all the temptations of mortality. The Lord “...was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) By living a perfect life as a man, he showed that it was possible and showed the way for all others to do the same. He said:
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, <u>the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.</u>
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14)
Note the ideas Jesus conveyed here and elsewhere: those that seek him and obey him will be empowered to do what he did and greater, without exceptions.
Paul said it more concisely: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13)
If you believe in Jesus, you have to believe that people have the potential to be as Jesus was. You must believe people are capable of greatness!
Believing in the divine potential of all humans will immediately infuse you with great purpose: to do whatever you can to help them achieve it.
Life differentiates you
It seems that most people who think they are exceptional aren’t, while most who are don’t know they are. Both problems can be addressed by paying attention to how people interact with the situations life provides.
It seems that most people drastically underestimate the breadth of human character found in this world. That’s because diversity of character is much like a paper fan. When closed, all parts of the fan are smashed together. It is only when you expand the fan that you see the distance between each of the folds, and it is vast. Only those with a great deal of knowledge, wisdom, and character can perceive the true extent of differences in human knowledge, character, and wisdom. Like with IQ, you have to be of a certain stature before you can realize the breadth of options and the difference being of a certain stature makes. The problem is that this awareness is rare and subsequently the status quo is designed from the perspective of sameness.
Sameness is a destroying influence. Most of the good in the world is done by a few elite people. Normal people need elite people to keep the world from falling apart, and exceptional people need to know they exist to rise up and do what only they are willing to do.
We are all unarticulated chaos. You only know who you are by how you react to the unending chain of stimuli life provides.
This is both massively empowering and seriously crippling. You can be anything you are willing to be, but you are also only what you are willing to be.
We have a strong socially-imprinted aversion to anything that suggests that we are not the same. Yet all nature testifies that it is so. People have different heights, different preferences, different dispositions, and different levels of productivity. Why shouldn’t we have differing outputs?
Correct beliefs can be ascertained by considering the utility of the outcomes of the belief. Supposing there are differences among us, what is the outcome if we assume we are normal? We will be no different than the average person, because even if we have the capacity to be more, we will never believe it and never try it.
The world needs you to stand up. The world needs you to lift what you are capable of lifting. There are people in this world whose lives would be so much better if you were to do what only you can do.
Fear of elitism
Elitism is the belief that some people are more capable than others, whether by birth or by will. In general, people stay far away from elitism.
Elitism does not require that you believe that some people have less intrinsic worth or potential than others. It merely means that you recognize the fact that some people do more with their potential than others.
Some wish that everyone were the same. They conflate our equal opportunity from God with equal outcomes. God has said over and over that all his truth is available to any and everyone just as soon as they exercise the required heed and diligence. In other words, you are fully in control of what you receive from God.
All men have equal privilege:
Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden. (2 Nephi 26:28)
But all men do not equally exercise the opportunity given them by God:
4...while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.
5 Or in fine, in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren.... (Alma 13)
Elite people are exceptional only because they do exceptional things. While there are certainly natural differences between people—that is, differences due to birth—these are significantly overshadowed by differences in what we choose. A person who chooses to practice piano five hours a day for years will be better than any person with natural aptitude who doesn’t practice.
Almost every large company’s productivity follows the 80/20 rule: 20% of the people produce 80% of the benefit. When someone among the 80% doesn’t do a good job, not much noticeable difference in output occurs. Output is much more sensitive to those who are making outsized contributions. If the salesperson who closes 10-100x the normal volume goes on vacation, sales will take a noticeable plunge. What if that salesperson believed they were average? How would the company fare? How would that change the resources available for each of the many people in the 80% segment? This is at least as true in society as it is in work.
Differences in output will be observable in any sufficiently large set of humans. That can’t change without force, and force can never yield a changed heart.
Many avoid entertaining a belief in elitism in order to avoid the responsibility or guilt that comes with it. Elitism challenges your pride: if some people are exceptional, why aren’t you ? Elitism challenges your worth: if you could be elite, why aren’t you?
If it is possible to be elite, but you are not, you are either willingly abdicating what you could do, or you are less than those who are elite. Neither conclusion is appealing to the natural man, but neither conclusion ought to occur.
Elitism can cause negative outcomes. It can be twisted and used as an excuse for some to control others. It can cause differences in outcomes that hurt the feelings of those who produce less than others.
Even with its drawbacks, elitism is an indisputable fact. It is reality. Ignoring what is true does not change reality.
It is wrong to think that only situations without drawbacks can be optimal. The question should never be whether something is perfect, but whether it is worth it. A belief in elitism is indisputably worth it. Those who could do more will never do more without first believing they can. All improvement of which they are capable lies beyond where they currently are, which is the permanent bound of the belief that we are all the same. We aren’t.
If you are willingly abdicating what you could otherwise do, you ought to stand up and achieve your potential. No matter who you are, people need you to rise up to your potential. No matter who you are, there are specific people who will suffer unnecessarily if you do not rise up to your potential. No matter who you are, you will never have peace as long as you are living less than how you know how.
Even if you retain the belief that you are not capable of doing great things, you should embrace elitism, as it provides you with the hope that those who are elite will do for you what you can’t do for yourself. After all, what person would be upset that they have friends that can help them move things that are too heavy for them to carry themselves?
Some are scared of thinking themselves elite. That is understandable. In believing that being exceptional is up to you, you assume a massive weight of responsibility, as we are each responsible for the good we could have done.
For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation. (D&C 82:3)
Some are scared of what others might think if they live their potential. That is understandable. Other people are, by definition, normal. The more you live up to your potential, the more different from them you will be. You will be misunderstood, misjudged, and persecuted. But the very things that make you different will be what helps others encounter more joy themselves.
What you are willing to endure determines your capacity
When two of Jesus’ disciples asked to have places of honor in heaven, Jesus said he could not arbitrarily give that privilege to people, but suggested that if they were willing to “drink of the cup” that was required to obtain that outcome, they could have it:
20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
21 And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.
22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. (Matthew 20)
Here, Jesus was teaching his disciples that greatness—like everything else in this life—is a matter of cause and effect. Those desiring a certain outcome need only discover and follow the recipe for obtaining that outcome.
There is a belief that Jesus was divine because of the virgin birth. Jesus did not come to the earth with any special powers. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) He obtained special powers by learning more than any other man had ever learned, in the same way that all men must learn:
For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world. (D&C 132:5)
He learned incrementally, line upon line through dedicated selfimprovement and through dedication to the benefit of others: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
The driving differentiation in Jesus’ life was not magic capability, but rather a relentless drive to learn and do all that he could. Jesus was divine not because he had magic powers, but because he was humble.
The Lord taught his disciples that if they wanted to share the glory and honor he possessed, they needed to do the things he did.
The world needs you to do more. The world needs you to get more from God. The sheep need to be fed, and there are things that will never happen if you don’t do them.
Are you overwhelmed by the charge to be like him? Good. You should be. This very feeling of nothingness is what will enable you to follow his example.
It is because we recognize the greatness of God that we feel weak. Jesus called himself the least of all:
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Matthew 11:11)
He “descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth....” (D&C 88:6) His power was the result of his humble submission to the Father. Like Jesus, if you submit yourself completely to God, you will be enabled to receive all he has.
Being elite looks and feels the opposite of what many would assume. It is not the belief that you are special. Rather, it is the belief that you are nothing connected with the belief that God is everything connected with the belief that he wants to give you all things by making you like he is. When you subscribe to these beliefs, you open the gates of what God can give you, and you will do amazing things because he is amazing and because you don’t inhibit him by asserting your own supposed goodness.
Being elite is not a quality; it is a choice. It is about what you are willing to subject yourself to. He who submits himself most fully to God will be greatest among men.
The greatest strength of men is nothing compared to the greatness of God. The Lord followed this path in his mortal ministry by submitting to the Father in all things.
Similarly, we can do the same by submitting to the Lord in all things:
`For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)`
It is only through an ever-increasing knowledge of our own nothingness that we can access ever-increasing quantities of God’s greatness in our lives:
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:27)
One man of God described this attitude as follows:
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Alma 26:12)
Greatness is not about being better than others. Greatness is about what you are willing to be responsible for.
Greatness is not found in seeking for experiences to meet inflated selfperception of qualifications. Rather, it is found in seeking qualifications to fit your desires to help others.
It is not our “specialness” that qualifies us for the work, but our desire—our willingness to assume responsibility. If you don’t desire to be great, you never will be. Meanwhile, “...if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.” (D&C 4:3)
The Lord said: “...If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35) If you are willing to truly consider yourself the least of all, willing to descend below all things, you will fully open the gates to receiving God’s goodness in you, and you will do God’s works. Jesus said: “...the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” (John 14:10)
Rising to your true potential is not about being better than others. It is about helping them to the extent of your capability and seeking greater capability for that purpose. When his disciples were arguing over who was the greatest, Jesus said:
25 ...Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20)
Being elite is not about exercising dominion. It is about serving others. The Lord said: “...if any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
Being elite is about “...doing these things thou wilt do the greatest good unto thy fellow beings, and wilt promote the glory of him who is your Lord.” (D&C 81:4) It is about a consummate focus on what benefits the world without regard to what it costs you (see 2 Nephi 26:24).
Those who are willing to seek God with full purpose of heart and who do everything he says will encounter the greatest joy available. They will be the most improved and they will be of the greatest service to their fellowmen. They will find themselves doing great things—not of their own goodness, but because of what God gives them.
What happens when you ignore your potential?
God provides all people with access to his influence, which will quietly but consistently whisper that there is something much better and much greater for you than what you presently have and are. Your capacity to contribute to this world is a fundamental part of your joy. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) You ignore your potential at your own peril, with steep consequences that range across all aspects of this life and after.
Normal dogs were bred to be low-intelligence but affectionate companions. Sled dogs were bred to pull a burden for miles and miles every day. They are energetic and intelligent animals. When put into the situations they were designed for, they are happy and capable of deep bonds with humans. When you cage or confine a sled dog, depriving it of the duties it was born to do, it gets anxious, mean, and destructive. Like a sled dog, you were designed for abnormal tasks. Like a sled dog, you will be miserable if you do not live the purpose for which you were born.
Your conscience will drive you to do all you can. You will never have peace or contentment while you are doing less than you are able.
Great mental unrest is caused by an uncalibrated sense of responsibility. Depression stems from recognizing that there is something much better and much greater for you without having the tools to articulate or achieve those improvements. Anxiety stems from attempting to fulfill this visceral urge through ineffectual means (e.g., things outside of your control). Anxiety is remitted by explicitly evaluating the efficacy of potential actions and learning to replace unfruitful actions with fruitful ones. Depression is remitted by choosing a purpose and finding means to work toward it.
Of final note is the importance of realizing that, though you can run from your destiny, life has a way of helping it find you. In one instructive story, Jesus led Peter to walk out onto the water with him. Figuratively speaking, most Christians sit in a boat still sitting on the shore and claim they hold all the benefits God bestows to those who love him. Were you to pull their boat even into the shallows—as life always finds a way of doing—they would find everything that brings them peace in their simple situations to be insufficient for the chaos life provides. Meanwhile, those who actually believe God and follow him will find him taking them by the hand, leading them by foot on the water to the roughest seas. For them, there is no question of what God’s power is. Without it, they would instantly sink. They have no illusions about what God provides them in life, and they would never find themselves describing their lives as normal.
You were not created to be acted upon. You were created to act. Do not waste away the opportunities before you. You are a child of God. Do not squander your inheritance. Rise up and claim it!