Self-Mastery

 

Being human, we have the tendencies to do what we feel like doing. For example, I am in school and am taking a full load. There are some days that all I want to do is sit around and watch my “shows”. When I submit to these desires it creates stress later in the week. I don’t have the time to do what needs to be done for my assignments or have the time I want to spend with my family. I read a talk from President N. Eldon Tanner, from the April 1975 general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, titled, “Success is Gauged by Self-Master”. He was speaking to all the men of the Church during this talk, but each of us can learn from the thoughts he shared.

What does self-mastery have to do with success? Plato said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile”. If we can’t master our own desires or emotions, how will we ever get real control of our own lives? President Tanner shared two important elements of self-mastery. The first, “determine your course or set the sails of moral standards”. Number two, simply willpower. He stated, “character is determined by the extent to which we can master ourselves toward good ends”.

We are in charge of ourselves. We can succumb to our desires, or we can make a plan and follow through. There are going to be days that we want to stay in bed or maybe go do something different than we have planned but we need to stick to our goals, stick to the plan, remember who and whose we are. We need to remember we are here to do and learn great things. We cannot waste ourselves or our time on things that don’t matter and will not bring everlasting happiness.