To be born again

Just like a baby being born out of their prenatal habitation, a person who is born again has a completely different view on and motivation toward the world than they had before:

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (Galatians 5:24)

It is as if all things are new, because you interpret everything you perceive differently than you did, and everything you do is done for different reasons, even when the actions stay the same.

You reset your mindset; you reset your understanding of how life works, and you reset your view of yourself.

To be born again is to think and act intentionally as you believe God would in your place:

6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ...
9 ...ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul. (2 Nephi 32)

You think differently, you act differently, and you desire differently. To be born again is to adopt as your motive the benefit of the world, just as Jesus would do, seeking the welfare of all people before your own.¹

To be born again is to live in a constant state of considering and doing what is best—to constantly learn more about what is best.

To be born again is to decide based on reasons, not feelings. It is to learn to act, instead of react—to choose instead of passively float.

To be born again is to learn to see what could be with the eye of faith, not just what is immediately apparent with the eye of the flesh.

To be born again is to be motivated and actuated by your conscience, not your fleshy desires.

To be born again is to submit fully to the contemplation of, increased understanding of, and performance of perfection—so far as you understand it—in all things.

You accept Jesus Christ as your father and as the motivation and instruction for all you do:

7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.
8 And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives. (Mosiah 5)

You become spiritually-minded: you choose to believe that everything about God is good, you couch your perception of reality in your understanding of God, and you couch your understanding of God in your perception of reality. You reach to reconcile every aspect of your life to what you imagine God might think about it. You flip from being acted upon to being the one who acts. You actively curate your own perception and drive your own reality. You seek to bring what you see in the spirit into physical reality instead of allowing your spirit to be subject to physical reality.