--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Hogenson, J. C. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 11 published: 1908-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Hogenson, J. C., "Put Energy Into Your Work," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 11 (September 1908): 881–882.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera11011unse start_page: 881 end_page: 882 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera11011unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Put Energy Into Your Work PUT ENERGY INTO YOUR WORK. BY PROF. J. C. HOGENSON, M. S. A. OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. If you cannot do the thing that you like, Pray what are you going to do? I'm sure you will find that the very best way Is to like the thing that you do. — H. K. Wyman. It is perhaps impossible for all to do in life just what we would like to do, and nothing more. It is impossible to reach that point where we can look back and say, "I have had every desire fulfiled, every ambition gratified. I have done all the things I liked to do, and have not touched the things I did not like." We will find that in a successful life we must do many things which we at first did not like, or for which we had no interest. Our likes, however, may change with increase of knowledge. Because we cannot exactly do the things we like best, shall we therefore fold our arms and do nothing? or, shall we be awake to our opportunities and do other things as they come to us, or as it becomes our duty? Not do them half-heartedly and without interest; but go into them with all our might and make the most of them. As we begin to become familiar with them, we will find many points to admire which at first were uninteresting, because we had given them no thought and were unfamiliar with them. As we view them now, under our broader understanding and vision, they become very interesting. We see so much in them which we did not see before that our old likes are put into the background by our newly awakened likes for the thing in hand . 882 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Let us not yearn for things and duties that we cannot get, but put our whole souls and energies into the things and duties we have to do, and so make them a pleasure instead of a task. By doing this, we will find that "Somewhere Today," as expressed in the following poem, continually in our own lives: Somewhere today the woods are greer, And moist and sweet with shade, Somewhere today the thrush doth sing From secret leafy ghde, — Somewhere today. Somewhere today the water gleams And glistens in the sun, As if a thousand jewels rare Upon its breast were flung, — Somewhere today. Somewhere today the strawberry Doth ripen on the hill, The cattle clip the juicy grass And wander at their will, — Somewhere today. Somewhere today the pathways wind Along the singing brooks, By open fields and then again Tnrough fragrant vine-hung nooks, — Somewhere today. Somewhere today the wild flowers bloom, The insects hum and sing, The clouds like dreamthoughts come and go, The birds pass swift awing, — Somewhere today. Somewhere today a rich life-stream Doth pulse from Nature's heart, And I in fancy o'er its brink Do lean and sip a part, — Somewhere today. — J. D. Stone. Logan, Utah.