Week 06 Entrepreneurial Journal

 

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city (Proverbs 16:32). 

This week I want to reflect mostly on Elder Tanner's talk, where he discuss the importance of self-mastery. He started his talk by sharing from two philosophers,Plato and Da Vinci.  Plato said, "The first and the best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is , of all things, the most shameful and vile." Da Vinci also said,"You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself. The height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment." President James E. Faust in April, 2000 Ensign said,"Self-mastery is the ultimate test of our character." Self-mastery requires self-determination and consistency.

Elder Tanner share two elements of self-mastery:

1. We must determine our course or set the sails of moral standards and
2. We must have the will power or the wind in the sails carrying us forward.

A few more pointers that stood out to me from his talk:

• Character is determined by the extent to which we can master ourselves towards good end.
• Those who keep on the straight and narrow path leading to their goal, realizing that the straight line is the the shortest distance between two points and that detours are very dangerous, are those who succeed in life and enjoy self-realization and achievement. this requires self-control and self-discipline.
• Those who fail to keep their goals in mind and fail to discipline themselves find that they are following detours and paths that lead to failure and destruction.
• We must never relax or forget who we are and what we are trying to accomplish.

In conclusion, self-mastery is making our-self do something we ought to do whether we want to or not. in order for us to realize the ideal and the spiritual development of our soul, we need to have the virtue of self-mastery.