The default state of a person is to passively float through life, not really contemplating what you do or why you do it, animalistically seeking for what feels good right now instead of what is best for you and everyone else in the long-term. This is human nature: it is what a person will be like unless they actively seek to be different.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. (2 Nephi 10:24)
Spiritual rebirth occurs when you decide to abandon your previous guidance system—usually a mix of doing whatever feels good right now with a sprinkle of occasional long-term optimal decisions—for a model where all decisions are made according to your understanding of what God would do in your place:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost... (2 Nephi 31:13)
When you choose to submit to God in all things, you are forgiven of your past sins, or justified. Through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you are as if you’ve never sinned, and you are worthy of the receipt of the Holy Ghost, which can teach you much more about God, yourself, and life.
Choosing to follow God means to submit to him in all things, even until death, substituting how you think he would think and feel about your situation in place of how you think and feel about it. It means to be “...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) or to do all things God commands and to suffer all scenarios he might lead you to and through.
This submission is so total that it is described as having a “broken heart and a contrite spirit”:
And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost... (3 Nephi 9:20)
A broken heart and a contrite spirit requires that you actually do what you understand to be God’s will, no matter what it costs you:
Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me. (D&C 97:8)
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 ...as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. (Romans 6)
Total submission to God necessarily includes:
- Total cessation of all things contrary to your understanding of what God would do in your place.
- Total emulation of all things according to your understanding of what God would do in your place.
- Baptism, which is one of God’s commandments, in demonstration of your commitment to keep all his commandments.
The totality of surrender involved in this decision causes fear in most who consider it. Rather than fear what you might miss out on by following God, it’s good to honestly reconcile yourself to the fact that God knows more about what will lead you to lasting happiness than you do, and he cares more about you obtaining it than you do. There is no reason not to trust him more than you trust yourself:
Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. (Alma 7:15)
Since sin means anything less than your best, the preceding scripture is not just a warning to avoid hellfire and brimstone, but an invitation to truly pursue the best outcomes you can in life, in the only way one can: by submitting to God and following his instructions unfailingly for the rest of your life.