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.