"That Which We Persist in Doing"

"That which we persist in doing . . . not that the nature of the thing changes. . . ."  We are all familiar with that line. It was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and often quoted by Heber J. Grant, the seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  President Grant would usually accompany the Emerson quote with the following story:

“When I joined a base ball club, the boys of my own age, and a little older, played in the first nine, those younger than myself played in the second, and those still younger in the third, and I played with them. One of the reasons for this was that I could not throw the ball from one base to the other; another reason was that I lacked physical strength to run or bat well. When I picked up a ball, the boys would generally shout, ‘Throw it here, sissy!’ So much fun was engendered on my account by my youthful companions that I solemnly vowed that I would play base ball in the nine that would win the championship of the Territory of Utah.

“My mother was keeping boarders at the time for a living, and I shined their boots until I saved a dollar, which I invested in a base ball. I spent hours and hours throwing the ball at a neighbor’s barn, which caused him to refer to me as the laziest boy in the Thirteenth Ward. Often my arm would ache so that I could scarcely go to sleep at night. But I kept on practicing, and finally succeeded in getting into the second nine of our club. Subsequently I joined a better club, and eventually played in the nine that won the championship of the Territory. Having thus made good my promise to myself, I retired from the base ball arena.”

Young Heber continued to practice persistence in other areas, such as penmanship, grammar and singing.

"From the time I was a child of nine, I tried to sing. I tried time and time again without any apparent success. When I was about forty-three years of age, I had a private secretary with a beautiful baritone voice. I told him I would give anything in the world if I could only carry a tune. He laughed and said, ‘Anybody who has a voice and perseverance can sing.’ I immediately appointed him as my singing teacher.

“My singing lessons started that night. At the end of two hours’ practice I still couldn’t sing one line from the song we had been practicing. After practicing that one song for more than five thousand times, I made a mess of it when I tried to sing it in public. I practiced it for another six months. Now I can learn a song in a few hours.”

Throughout his life, President Grant sought continual improvement, believing that “every individual can improve from day to day, from year to year, and have greater capacity to do things as the years come and the years go.”  As Bryant S. Hinckley put it, “he never criticized other men’s weaknesses but made war on his own.”

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.” 

I was struck this week by the truth of Emerson's statement.  As I wrote at my other blog, The Whole Missionary, I have been working in a call center.  "A call center was the absolute last place I ever wanted to work, yet here I am and, perhaps even more surprising, I might actually be good at it."  I wrote that back in September, when I was still in training.  As part of what is called nesting, I had just finished my first week of 8 hour shifts on the phone.

I had started training back in June.  One of the things that put my mind at ease when I started was that the training course would last 11 weeks.  To answer the concerns and questions of the customers, agents need to have a strong understanding of health insurance and the resources they use to find answers.  In addition to learning about the business, I had to prepare myself for the idea of answering phones all day, every day.  I have done phone work before, mostly reception work, and it has never been something I have enjoyed.

Training completed on the second day of October, and the reward for graduating was mandatory overtime -- and a Kit Kat bar.  Mandatory overtime is a fact of life in a call center, and it meant seven additional hours on the phones each week through October.  But the kicker came in November with two straight weeks of ten hour days.  There were long, frustrating days with angry callers and challenging problems.  Some problems could not be solved, but the greatest challenge, for me, might have been trying to make small talk with the callers.  But the experience paid off.

One day this week I scored two 100 percents on post call surveys, back to back, which led the entire floor for the day.  Despite my often futile attempts at small talk, I must have been doing something right.  Then, yesterday, I was asked to walk the floor and help other agents with concerns or questions they had while talking calls.  I was a coach for a day because the one of the actual coaches called in sick.  My supervisor had asked me the day before if I would be willing to walk the floor one day next week.  He said I was his best agent and a shoe-in to become a coach the next time there are promotions.  I was stunned.

I have been working hard, and I have notices improvement, but I figured I still had some things to work on.  They say that a good portion of success is showing up, and that may be true because my supervisor is always thanking me for my 100% attendance.  In the nearly 6 months that I have been at this, from training to production, I haven't missed a single minute.

Now, I am not saying any of this to brag.  I only wish to agree with Emerson and President Grant.  Persistence, discipline and commitment are essential ingredients in the recipe for success.  If I can do it, anyone can.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.” 

Sources:

Cox, D. P. (2015). "You Must Do the Thing You Think You Cannot Do". The Whole Missionary. http://thewholemissionary.blogspot.com/2015/09/you-must-do-thing-you-think-you-cannot.html

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant, (2011)
https://www.lds.org/manual/teachings-heber-j-grant/chapter-4?lang=eng#1-35970_000_008

"Minds Are Like Parachutes"

I enjoy reading and writing about history, it is a passion of mine. Though I do not have any degrees, and have not been paid or published, I like to consider myself to be a historian. One thing I have learned from many years of studying history is that history is never done. There is always the possibility that new information or new discoveries will change how a particular historical event is viewed and understood.

A case in point is the book Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of of Midway by Anthony Tully and Jonathan B. Parshall, which completely changed how that epic naval battle is understood.  Using the after action reports of the four Japanese carriers and their air groups that fought at Midway, as well as a careful examination of Japanese carrier operations and doctrine, the authors unravel the myths and misconceptions that had resulted from an over reliance on eyewitness accounts and personal reflections.

We can take this same lesson about history never being done and apply it to other disciplines, other subjects of study, as well as to politics and other world views. Even in science there remains the possibility that new information and new discoveries will change what has become accepted. More importantly, perhaps, this applies to our own thinking and to our own perspectives.

We are often told these day to question certain things like religion, yet at the same time that we are told that we should not question other things like science. In fact, we should question everything, because it is only by asking questions and seeking answers that we will learn. We cannot learn if we close our minds and shut out information that is not compatible with what we think we already know.  Usually when someone tells me I should not question something, I take that as a sign that I am on the right track.

Sir James Dewar said, "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."

John Wooden, the college basketball coaching legend, said, "It is what you learn after you know everything that matters."

Often we choose not to listen to certain people, based on appearances or who we think they are, or some other criteria, but truth is truth no matter the source, or, as former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of state Colin Powell once said, "Truths from the mouths of curmudgeons is truth all the same."  Truth and plainness can come from unexpected places.

When war broke out between Japan and the United States, diplomats of each country were interned by the other until an exchange was made starting in August 1942.  On the first exchange ship was a Rear Admiral Yokoyama, who had been the Japanese naval attaché in Washington during 1941, the assistant attaché, and a naval intelligence officer from the Japanese legation in Mexico City.  Before sailing for home, these men had had full access to American newspapers for more than six months and the knowledge gleaned from the press was added to all they had learned in their official capacities before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Upon arrival in Tokyo, the three men were immediately sequestered at Naval General Headquarters where they were to play a war game using their fresh knowledge.  Playing the commanders of the United States, they started farther back than where the forces of the United States then actually were -- for the purposes of the game, it was assumed that Japan had recaptured Guadalcanal.  Despite the handicap, the team playing the role of U.S. commanders managed to retake the Philippine Islands by October 1, 1944 -- 20 days before General McArthur's return to the Philippines on the island of Leyte in actual fact.

In recounting this episode in his fifteen volume history of the U.S. Navy during World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison would point out that a "grave defect arose from the excessive respect for rank and position in Japan.  The initiation of suggestions about strategic plans, which any officer could venture in the United States, was in Japan the prerogative of Naval General Staff and Commander in Chief Combined Fleet, and anyone who brought unwelcome information or intelligence to the top men was apt to be snubbed."

This did not bode well for the findings of the three men so recently returned from America.  "These officers, who so successfully anticipated Nimitz's and McArthur's moves from the Solomon Islands to Leyte Gulf, were, however, ignored.  Nobody wanted to their information or their views.  We asked one of them [after the war] if anything was said to his winning team by the Naval General Staff.  'Yes,' said he, 'we were told to keep our mouths shut!'"

Sometimes we get caught up in our own perceived wisdom, perhaps based on our experience or education as compared to the experience and education of others.   It is also commonplace these days to argue that other people should open their minds.  Ironically, it may be that those arguing that others are closed minded might in fact be the ones whose minds are closed. Perhaps it is like humility, once you think you are open minded, your mind is actually closed. Our minds may be closed because we are so focused on opening the mind of someone else. Or, as one wise man put it, we are so focused on the sliver in another's eye that we completely miss the telephone pole in our own eye.

To have an open mind means that regardless of the subject and regardless of our first reaction to an event, or the label we place on the messenger, that we are at least open to the possibility that we might not have all the information, and that additional information could potentially alter the way we see that event. Are we able to step back from our initial reaction and consider that the reality could actually be the complete opposite of how we perceive it? When we can do that, then our minds are truly open.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he shall make it plain.
(Hymn #285 "God Moves in a Mysterious Way") 

A New Blog, A New Frontier

I have another blog, The Whole Missionary, but I have been thinking for a while now that I have done as much as I could with the missionary focus of that blog.  The inspiration for The Whole Missionary came during the priesthood session of the October 2012 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  That was the same conference where the announcement was made regarding the change in the age of eligibility for young men and women for serving full time missions.

A midst the excitement the announcement generated among family and friends, I listened to the first talks of that priesthood session which seemed to focus on what it meant to be men.  I had a thought I had had many times before, that we could do a better job of preparing our young people to serve missions.  Among the missionaries I served with on my mission there were various reasons why these young men and women had accepted the call to serve, some well thought out, others rather silly.  I had accepted my call out of gratitude for the blessings God had given me and out of a desire to serve him, and I could think of no better reason.

So I started a blog dedicated to helping people prepare to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  While focusing on missionary work, most of the time, I posted on many different topics, and soon accumulated 170 posts.  But I think I first realized I might have been running out of steam when I started posting edited versions of letters I sent home from my mission all those years ago.  At the same time, I was posting more and more on topics that had little if anything to do with preparing for and serving a full time mission.

I may still have an occasional idea for a missionary focused post, but I also have other ideas.  I might continued posting those letters from the mission field of the late 1980s, but I have also been thinking about posting more stories about my great great great grandfather Frederick G. Williams.  I might post other stories from LDS Church history.  The more I ponder this, it occurs to me that the sky may really be the limit.

The inspiration for the name of this new blog comes from the fourth verse of the LDS hymn Redeemer of Israel:

As children of Zion,

Good tidings for us.

The tokens already appear.

Fear not, and be just,

For the kingdom is ours.

The hour of redemption is near.

(I have an idea that, though I liked the name, The Whole Missionary, that others may never have really understood its meaning.)

Recent events at home and abroad have reminded us that the world is a dangerous place. It may seem at times that we are surrounded by fire on every side, or that we may, in fact, be living in a world on fire.  Yet there really are "good tidings for us."  No matter how dark things get, there will always be good news; in the gospel of Jesus Christ we may find peace and strength, and the courage to press forward during these latter days.

There is difficulty in the world around us, but there is often also difficulty in our day to day lives.  No matter how much we may struggle, or how weak we may feel ourselves to be, we can always humble ourselves and exercise faith in God and the Son he sent to die for us.  We have his promise that His grace is sufficient to make weak things become strong if we truly will humble ourselves and have faith in Him.

Good tidings for us indeed.