Consistency-Simple, Not Easy: Building Spiritual Strength Through Daily Habits

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You don't change your life in one day.
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You change your life one day at a time.
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This is Todd Talks, Spirit by Design, where I help you design the spiritual life that you want to have to prepare you for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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My goal for this episode is to talk about the power of consistency.
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You see, we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a week and underestimate what can happen when we consistently do the right thing for years.
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For example, I have been inconsistent for years with my attempts at exercise, weight loss, I'll go for a few days, and then uh something gets in the way, I stop, wait a few weeks, or I do it haphazardly, do it when I'm on the road, don't do it at home, inconsistent, and guess what?
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I got inconsistent results.
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But for the last almost two months, I have not missed a day consistently going, working out every day, at least a mile, up to ten miles, lifting weights, stretching, and you know what?
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My eating's gotten better.
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My weight has decreased by over 16 pounds, and I feel not only a hundred percent better, but I feel better because I feel stronger mentally through being consistent.
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You know, the same principle about consistency in exercise and weight loss applies to spirituality.
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You don't become a disciple of Jesus Christ because of one simply incredible Sunday, a great talk, one powerful spiritual experience, or one emotional prayer.
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You become one through thousands of small, daily decisions that keep you turning towards Christ.
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President Dalin H.
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Oakes taught by small and simple things are great things brought to pass, quoting scripture.
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And he specifically connected this principle to daily scripture study, prayer, family prayer, repentance, and other regular spiritual practices, saying that their power comes over time.
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Now, in addition to working out every day, I've also created a morning routine and have not missed the day of scriptures, the day of listening to one of the talks by the general authorities, apostles, prophets of our church.
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I haven't missed a day of gratitude.
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And you know what?
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I'm a happier person because of it.
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I've always been happy, but I'm so I I can't even explain the different level that I'm on.
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So everybody wants transformation.
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Nobody wants repetition, right?
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We don't love doing the same thing over and over again.
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We want the body without the years of workouts.
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We want the marriage without years of communication, we want financial freedom without the years of discipline and spending and gaining.
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We want spiritual strength without years of obedience.
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We want confidence without years of doing hard things, and we want a testimony without years of seeking knowledge.
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Here's the thing: all of those things, every single one of them, every single one of them are dreams, they're pipe dreams, unless we put in the work.
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So I found, what I've learned, that what if the life you want isn't created by one giant decision, but by the things you are willing to do over and over again?
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Well, I'm finding out by putting in the work and doing the hard things, to the extent that when Spencer, a friend of mine, invited me slash challenged me to go do an Iron Man with him in uh April, no, March, I actually said yes.
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Makes me a little nervous, but excited at the same time because I have to consistently prepare daily for my body to be ready.
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I mean, I'm 50, almost 52 years old.
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I've never done anything like that.
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So I've got a long way to go to build up.
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At least I can run again.
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I haven't been I haven't run in 20 years, but a couple weeks back I ran five miles in under an hour.
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Yeah, me.
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So in Doctrine Covenant 6433, we read, Be not weary in well-doing.
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For ye are laying the foundation of a great work, and out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
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This is the anchor for this episode.
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Be not weary.
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The Lord doesn't say do something spectacular, he says don't get tired of doing good things.
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That's consistently.
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Don't get tired of doing good.
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Alma 37, 6 and 7 says, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.
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Let's make the connection to modern life.
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Does a single workout change your body?
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No.
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But does a daily workout over multiple months change your body?
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Absolutely.
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Does a single healthy meal change your health?
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No.
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But cutting out the sugar and eating right for months can starve out cancer.
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It can cause you to be healthy physically.
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Does one good conversation transform a marriage?
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No.
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But what about daily conversations?
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Not just talking about little things, but talking about dreams and hopes and fears and all the things.
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Does one deposit, one paycheck, make you wealthy?
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No.
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But ultimately, making multiple deposits, watching your spending, trading and investing, and watching your money grow and make money for you, that'll make you wealthy.
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Does one prayer make you spiritually mature?
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No.
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But if you've been listening to this podcast, you know, and you know that when you pray and you listen and you act on the promptings that you get, if you do that daily, weekly, monthly, suddenly your spiritual strength increases exponentially.
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Those things repeated become a life.
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President Oaks explained that seemingly insignificant practices become powerful when practiced consistently and continuously.
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You see, your life is the accumulated result of things that didn't seem important when you did them.
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Let me say that again.
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Your life is the accumulated result of things that didn't seem important when you did them.
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But when you consistently do them, it becomes a life.
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So you don't become fit.
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I've already talked about this.
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When because you exercise once.
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You become fit because you repeatedly move, eat well, recover, sleep, train, show up every day.
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You don't become spiritually strong because you had one powerful testimony.
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You pray, study scripture, repent, take the sacrament, keep your covenants daily, serve, endure to the end, listen for the Spirit, act on the promptings, and always repent and come back to Christ after you fall.
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And we will fall.
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We always fall.
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We're human, we make mistakes.
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But if we consistently get up and try again, the Lord will forgive you 100% of the time.
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President Dalin H.
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Oak specifically identifies regular prayer, scripture study, repentance, and other seemingly small practices as sources of spiritual growth over time.
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And you know these things have a compounding effect.
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Financial compounding means small amounts invested consistently can eventually become enormous.
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Spiritual growth works similarly.
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One prayer doesn't feel like much.
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One chapter doesn't feel like much.
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One act of repentance, again, doesn't feel like much.
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But eventually prayer becomes a relationship with God.
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Scriptures become understanding, and we can talk to you through them.
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Obedience becomes character.
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Repentance becomes conversion, covenants becomes strength, and faith becomes confidence.
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You see, Elder David A.
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Bednar described consistent spiritual nourishment like steady drops of water sinking deep into soil, allowing spiritual roots to become firmly established and produce fruit.
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President Oakes quoted this teaching in his conference message.
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Sorry, just spilled my drink.
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Um, you know, consistency is probably more important than intensity.
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And I guarantee that that's true.
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You see, there's been studies that have shown that the oldest living men have been studied.
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Those there's a group of people that have lived to be 112 years old.
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And one of the consistent things that they did every day was walk.
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Consistently, they walked everywhere.
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Walking is good for your body.
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Is it intense?
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No.
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But it's good for your heart.
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So the intensity is good, motivation is good, but consistency is more important.
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We often think, I need to get serious about this.
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We go from zero to a hundred and we burn ourselves out.
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Why do you think New Year's resolutions fail by February?
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Because we go, I'm going all in.
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And we go all in.
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And by February, we're burned out.
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And that two-hour diet, perfect diet, two hours of scripture, long prayer, huge goals, fails because we couldn't hack it.
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We couldn't continue because we overdid it.
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And that's the point.
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By Wednesday, we're exhausted.
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We quit.
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So a better approach is to make behavior sustainable.
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So in this group that we're part of, Tiffany and I, we're doing a daily routine.
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Four things.
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Just four things.
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But we've committed to do it daily.
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Change, remove one bad habit, drink a certain amount of water.
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The first 30 days, walk one mile or run one mile.
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Just move for one mile, exercise.
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And four, fill out our worksheet to say if we did it or not.
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Be held accountable.
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And you know what?
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That consistency has been the and the simplicity has been the key that's worked for me.
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Keep it simple, stupid.
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That's been my model for motto for years.
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And I never applied it to everything.
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I should have.
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That's the beauty, is you can start whenever.
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So ask yourself, what can I consistently do for the next five years?
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The gospel is built for consistency.
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Christ gave us a rhythm.
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He told us daily prayer, regularly study scriptures, weekly take the sacrament, constantly repent.
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Regularly go to the temple and worship.
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Throughout your life, keep your covenants and endure to the end.
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There is a rhythm to discipleship.
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Father Mark A.
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Schmidt taught that consistent gospel living helps us remain steadfast and immovable during life's storms and connected spiritual strength to holy habits and righteous routines.
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See, the gospel isn't designed to be something you occasionally get excited about, it's designed to become part of the rhythm of your life, and I've really been finding that out the last couple months.
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I love my morning routine.
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Starting out with scripture and a conference talk.
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I love it.
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In 2 Kings chapter 5, Naaman wants to be healed.
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The prophet Elisha tells him to wash in the Jordan seven times, and Naaman got angry.
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Why?
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Because the solution seemed too simple.
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He basically wanted, give me something impressive.
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Instead, God gave him, do it again, do it simple, do something small.
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Sometimes God doesn't ask us for something extraordinary.
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To change our life, he doesn't do that.
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To change your life, he asks you to do this simple thing again and again and again and again and again and again.
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You get the point?
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President Howard W.
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Hunter taught that true greatness requires regular, consistent, small steps over a long period of time.
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Here's one fact though.
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Consistency does not mean perfection.
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Consistency doesn't mean that you never fail.
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It means that you keep coming back.
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You miss a workout, you come back tomorrow.
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You don't quit.
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You eat badly, well, you make your next meal better.
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You lose your temper, you apologize.
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You miss scripture study, heaven forbid you miss it one day.
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Well, guess what you do the next morning or the next night?
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You pick them up again.
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You don't quit.
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Too often we quit because we're our own worst critic.
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We say, I didn't do it, I'm a failure, I'm inconsistent, and we start telling ourselves these lies, these words, these negative emotions.
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And when you voice these negative emotions at yourself, it's a lot easier for you to then act on those negative emotions.
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So how do you fix it?
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Well, spiritual consistency isn't perfection, it's persistence.
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You don't get all onto yourself because you because you screwed up, because you weren't consistent for a day or two.
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In fact, that's what the phrase endure to the end means.
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It means when you fall, you get back up.
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You repent, you change, you get back on the horse.
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You know, I have ridden horses many times, and one time, Tiffany's horse was following mine as mine jumped over a little crick, and hers apparently jumped over a massive ravine.
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Same crick and ravine.
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She got bumped out of the saddle, thrown off the horse, landed, thankfully, in some tall grass.
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So she got bruised up but not hurt.
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And I'm so proud of her.
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She got back up onto the horse.
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That's what we need to do when we fail at consistency.
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You only fail at consistency when you don't get back on the horse.
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Because you can miss a day or two and still be consistent if you make consistency part of your entire life.
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Okay?
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So it's a lifelong decision to keep walking towards Christ.
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The danger of small things, it works both ways.
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Alma teaches that small things can produce great things and small things can also destroy us.
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How is that, you ask?
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Well, one compromise doesn't usually destroy someone's life.
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But a lifetime accumulation of compromises, rationalizations, secrets, neglected prayers, ignored promptings, bad habits, and excuses, that'll wreck a life.
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Elder Russell and Ballard taught that small choices can shape the direction of our lives.
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For good or for ill.
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That they we compare them to small things that determine the direction of a great shift.
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So nobody accidentally wakes up one morning with a completely different life.
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They've built it one small decision, one day at a time.
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So this is where it gets a little deeper.
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Consistency creates identity.
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When you do something over and over again, you're casting your vote on the person that you want to become.
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When you consistently exercise, you say I'm becoming someone who takes care of their body.
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I'm somebody that's healthy.
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If you consistently save money, you're saying I'm becoming someone who manages money wisely.
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If you consistently serve, you're saying I'm becoming someone who notices people.
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If you consistently pray, I'm becoming someone that turns towards God regardless of good or crisis.
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The goal isn't merely changing your behavior, the goal is to become a different person.
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When you desire change, here's the hard truth.
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When you desire change, there are parts of you that have to die.
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Old habits, old attitudes.
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There are parts of you that you have to give up.
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You cannot remain the same and become better.
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But line upon line, precept on precept, we can change and grow.
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In 2 Nephi 28, 30 it says, For he that receiveth light and continueth in God receiveth more light.
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That goes along with the line with the precept of line upon line, precept on precept.
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The Lord doesn't give us the entire picture at once.
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He teaches us gradually.
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Maybe if you're frustrated, it's because you aren't where you want to be spiritually.
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Ask yourself, however, if you've been working on yourself, how far have I come?
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I may not be where I want to be, but how far have I come?
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Where was I a year ago?
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And here's the thing if you don't take the step today, if you always say, I'll get to it tomorrow, guess what will happen?
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Tomorrow will come, and the next day will come.
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And a year will pass and you will have made no changes.
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That is human nature.
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But now you did make the changes.
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You did take steps.
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And maybe the changes subtle.
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Your prayers are different.
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You recognize the spirit faster.
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You repent quicker.
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You're more patient.
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You maybe you want to be more like Christ.
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That is growth.
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That's when you don't quit.
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Sometimes consistency is what gets you through the hard times.
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Because you think I want to work out every day?
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No.
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There have been days I really did not want to get out of bed to go work out.
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Really?
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Because I've been getting up at like 6.30 in the morning to go work out.
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And that's not normal for me.
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There will be times when it's hard, and the only thing that gets you through is your decision to be consistent.
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Especially when it feels pointless.
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You pray, but you don't feel anything.
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You study, but you don't feel enlightened.
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You work out but don't see the mirror changing.
00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.240
You save but don't feel wealthy.
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You serve, but nobody notices.
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These are all possibil possibilities, right?
00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.759
They're possibilities, Dad.
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You try to be better, but you still make mistakes.
00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:36.160
That's when consistency matters most, because faith isn't merely believing when you see results, it's believing all the time, even when you don't see the results, when you're alone.
00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:40.079
Faith is continuing when the results aren't visible yet.
00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:42.640
Because you will go through hard times.
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:47.599
You will have to be consistent even when you don't want to be.
00:23:48.559 --> 00:24:00.640
Because on the other side of change, on the other side of that consistency, when you get to the other side of that difficult barrier, huge things happen.
00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:12.160
Because you've then you notice the changes, you feel the changes, and you see that suddenly you are a different person than you were a year ago.
00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:15.839
So pick your small thing.
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.039
Don't leave this episode with 15 new goals.
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Pick one spiritual thing and what one life thing to make a change.
00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:28.799
Like I said, I'm doing four things.
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One of them's writing on a sheet, one of them's drinking water, one of them's exercising, and one of them's my morning routine.
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Oh, my doggy's in here.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:46.799
So for the next 30 days, pick one spiritual thing and one physical thing to change.
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:48.319
Maybe walk every day.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.200
Maybe read the Book of Mormon or the Bible for 10 minutes every day.
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Don't worry about whether this feels life-changing tomorrow.
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Your job is simply to keep doing it.
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Maybe the life you want isn't waiting on one giant breakthrough.
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Maybe it's waiting on you to become faithful in small things.
00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:26.880
The prayer you keep saying, the scripture you keep reading, the workout you keep doing, the apologies you keep making, the meal you keep choosing, the temptation you keep walking away from, the people you keep serving, and the savior you keep turning towards.
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:30.400
Don't underestimate what God can do with you.
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:36.880
Don't underestimate what God can do with someone who chooses to not quit.
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When you refuse to quit, small things turn into great things.
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Maybe the greatest miracle isn't that one day you suddenly become a different person.
00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:58.559
Maybe the miracle is that through thousands of ordinary decisions, Jesus Christ slowly makes you into a great person.
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This is Todd Toggs, Spirit by Design, and I hope you can make one spiritual choice and one life choice to change for the next 30 days.
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Just be consistent at two things for the next 30 days.
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Make that decision.
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And I promise you, on the other side of 30 days, you won't want to stop.
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And you'll want to keep going and add something else.
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This is Todd Talks, Spirit by Design, and I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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Like, share.
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If you feel like donating to the episode, that'd be cool.
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Anyways, follow, subscribe in order to re get all of these episodes as soon as they're ready.
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Every Tuesday and Friday.
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So, as always, have a blessed day.