I just returned today from an exhausting yet exhilarating weekend in Boise, Idaho doing one of my favorite things – running around with friends throwing and catching a plastic disc. Doesn’t frisbee sound awesome when you say it like that? Yeah, Friday night I got to drive up to Boise with the BYU team and play 5 games on Saturday. It was quite the long day, but we had a blast! My parents and sister Emma drove up with me – I was grateful they were able to come and watch me play.
We started the day off with FIRE, going in and beating the #4 seed Montana 11-5 (keep in mind that we entered the tourney seeded #11). That game gave us quite the thrill. All of our offensive and defensive sets seemed to be working just like we had practiced. We honestly had very little to complain about.
And then the wind started.
It was incredibly strong! The gusts were unpredictable and created a horrible crosswind effect. They seemed to start right as we began our second game against Washington State. This is where our weaknesses were gapingly exposed. You see, all winter we’ve been practicing at an indoor facility, which is great because it takes us away from the cold and windy outdoors. But that’s just it – we never threw in the wind. And that was obvious during this game. We were walloped! All of our momentum seemed to be replaced with fear and doubt and we were severely humbled.
The wind was reduced during our remaining games, but not enough to not affect our throws. Our third game was our best performance for sure – I “played like an animal” as my team said, possessed by a passion that only comes out when I do something I love. But despite our best efforts, we fell short to this, the best team in our pool, by just a couple of points. Ugh, I was devastated! We went on to finish the day with 2 wins and 3 losses, respectable for what was expected of us but not sufficient for what we expected of ourselves.
We had an absolute blast at this tournament. Our heads remained held high, we were laughing and having fun, our friendships were strengthened, and we played our hearts out. But I learned a fundamental lesson here that I’d like to share with you.
It’s actually something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately here at college. It has to do with success and how it is achieved. I believe success has two forms: visible and personal.
Visible success is earned, well, visibly, usually in the form of praise or a trophy or a name on a plaque on the wall. It is sought after because of the elevation you receive amongst peers. It feels really, really good. It is typically the reward of long hours of hard work and commitment.
And then, related to this but sometimes different, is personal success. This is the success you feel within yourself for having accomplished a goal. It does not have to be accompanied by any praise from anyone but yourself. It involves no plaque on a wall, only a plaque in your mind. It feels very good, though often not as good as visible recognition for your success.
Either way, personal success is arguably a better measure for what we have accomplished because no one knows us better than ourselves. And, on a spiritual note, personal success is often accomplished by a feeling of divine approval, a feeling that God, a loving Father, is proud of our hard work and dedication. In every way that matters, this is important.
One can then ask, how do you achieve success? To answer this, you could talk about goals and marking progress or any other manner of things. But today I want to change the approach maybe a little bit.
It is tempting to rely solely on elegance and flashiness to find success. That sounds odd, so let me explain what I mean. There is a difference between LOOKING good and BEING good. They often coincide with each other, but it is also clear to see how someone can look good without being good. I learned in my high school junior year American history class about the
word “gilded”. This means to be covered with a layer of gold or another fine material, but to be corrupt and decayed on the inside. Imagine you take an old 1950s rundown brick house and place fancy new stones all around it. It will then look nice, but when you walk inside it will be all moldy and beaten up. Thus, the “Gilded Age” that we learned about in history was the time shortly after the Civil War when America looked powerful but was actually rundown economically by monopolies and socially by continuing issues of racial segregation.
How does this all apply? Well, I know that I fall into a certain trap sometimes – maybe some of you do in your hobbies and talents as well. I have talked before about how much I would throw frisbees in my backyard while I was a teenager. That did more for me than anything else I ever practiced in this sport. However, a key principle in throwing a frisbee is whether or not a throw is a “game throw”. In a game, my throws have to be around a defender standing right in front of me, thrown in the direction of a moving target, and battled by elements of rain or wind. THAT is a game throw. What did my throws in the backyard resemble? Well, I had no defender in front of me, I was throwing to a stationary target, and more often than not I wouldn’t wanna throw when it was windy because it was cold.
Do you see the problem? In many ways my throwing ability was gilded, merely flashy and elegant. I look great when I throw to my friends at the park, and I always love to show off my fancy flicks and elegant hammers, but in a game situation they’re not as pretty. Thus, flashiness and elegance doesn’t necessarily give success.
(Don’t get me wrong, I still have very, very good game throws – they’re just not as good as I often think they are. I get a bit cocky because I can throw so well to a stationary target that I forget how hard it actually is in a game.)
What then is the solution? We can heed the scriptural counsel to “cleanse the inner vessel” (Alma 60:23). How do we do that? Well, we focus on it first! We don’t worry about our outward look – our only worry is that our outward appearance matches what we are on the inside. In a more temporal sense, this means I only look and act as good as I am. My basic fundamentals such as throwing a short pass in the wind are as good as my long-distance flashy flicks. In music, my ability to keep time as a drummer is just as good as my ability to play a loud drum solo. And whatever other hobby we have we can name how this applies.
How about on a spiritual note? Well, we do not act like hypocrites! We do not counsel others to read their scriptures every day if we do not do it ourselves. We do our best to show up to service projects rather than simply telling others to show up. We act saintly not because we want others to think we are saints but because we ARE saints!
Only we, meaning ourselves, and God know what we need to improve in this regard. It is up to us to make a plan and go achieve that plan of improvement and betterment. It’s up to us to do better and be better. It’s up to us to learn the fundamentals so well that we achieve success.
The words of President Ezra Taft Benson will strike our hearts:
“My beloved brethren and sisters, as we cleanse the inner vessel, there will have to be changes made in our own personal lives, in our families, and in the Church. The proud do not change to improve, but defend their position by rationalizing. Repentance means change, and it takes a humble person to change. But we can do it…
We can do it. I know we can.”
(Ezra Taft Benson, “Cleansing the Inner Vessel”)
Let’s follow President Benson’s battle cry and rush to improve ourselves! Let’s stop focusing on just looking good and start being good. I learned today that companies will use motor oil to make the syrup on their advertising pancakes look “flashier” and glue in their cereal to make their milk look more “elegant”. Everyone, let’s not use motor oil or glue! Let’s not be fake!
Let us refuse to be gilded and choose instead to first become saintly and then allow that saintly nature to naturally lighten our countenance until “the light of [Christ’s] countenance [shines] upon us” (3 Nephi 19:25) and THROUGH us.
Love you all heaps!
Adam Simpson
Comments