A great man named Gordon B. Hinckley wrote a book not long before he died titled Standing for Something. I like that title. A related notion, though I’ve never seen a
book with this title, could be Amounting
to Something. I remember, as a kid,
hearing my dad say something like, ‘if he would apply himself he could amount
to something,’ and ‘he’ll never amount to anything.’ If so, how?
If not, why not?
I have
though a lot about standing for something and amounting to something. A good and continuing education can help with
both.
To become
educated, we must surrender ignorance.
To move forward we often undertake a course of study and yield to
teachers who are probably wiser and certainly better educated than we are. When we pay money to go to school we usually
don’t balk over the process. When we go
to a physician to get healed we usually submit to the treatment. Yet when we
are encouraged to voluntarily engage in practices that could help us in our
quest to ‘amount to something’ we often do not fully engage ourselves or invest
ourselves or discipline ourselves to ‘go the course’ or take the medicine. We may get distracted from our goal, or
resent the expectations of our guide or mentor or maybe just get lazy. Or we
stubbornly go on our own way thinking we know better. But we don’t improve. Self-improvement, for many, is difficult to
obtain or to sustain.
Let me
suggest that if you want to ‘amount to something’ more than you currently are,
you don’t continue to go it alone. Make
a contract with another person that will make you accountable and then resolve
to ‘endure the process to the end.’
Check in periodically for ‘progress reports.’ Engage another person in the pursuit of your
quest. Don’t be afraid of correction
along the way. Even the best of
athletes, musicians, performers and presidents have coaches, mentors, and
advisors to help them.
