--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Hogensen, J. C. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 12 published: 1929-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "J. C. Hogensen, “The Possible You,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 12 (October 1929): 1006–1007." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32012unse 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: improvementera32012unse start_page: 1006 end_page: 1007 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32012unse publication_year: 1929 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 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Possible You The Possible You By Prof. J. C. Hogensen of the Utah Agricultural College Have you ever stopped to think for a moment, or try to look into the fu- ture, and picture in your mind the kind of person you are going to be ten, twenty or thirty years from now? If you have ever done so, did you realize that what you do now will determine largely just what kind of person you are going to be? Now is the time to develop habits of industry, thrift and economy which will enable you to make your mark high in the world. Perhaps you have thought that the person which the future will bring forth as "you" just happens. I hope you have found that you may take the many little experiences of each day and weave them according to a wonderful life pattern and only you can know this pattern. Some people make noth- ing but hit-and-miss rugs or crazy- patch work quilts out of their lives. Others let their experience threads pile up into a big tangle or allow them to work into hard knots, and it takes them all the rest of their lives to dis- entangle or untie the threads. You are the one to discover the secret of your pattern and the process and the joy of working out your life design. God grant that it may be a worthy one. As I look into the future, young men and women, I can see three pos- sibilities for each of you. You may become the careless, shiftless one who has made a failure in life, one whom nobody cares anything about, one who has no influence in his community, one everybody shuns and points to as a "no account." If you are shiftless today, following the direction of least resistance or the easiest path; if you neglect your studies and your oppor- tunities now, the probabilities are that you will do so in the future. You may become one of the common plodders, a good fellow, who has the respect of his associates, but who gets no farther. You are known in your town as a fellow-townsman and that is about all. Apparently that is the height of your ambition, your influence reaches no farther. You may become one upon whom success and prosperity have smiled, one whom everybody likes, whose influence extends far and wide, one to whom everybody comes for counsel and advice because they know that your judg- ment is sound, one whom everybody loves, honors and respects, an influence and a power in your community and your state. If you would attain this highest and greatest possibility, then you must start to build now a solid foundation for your life structure. Some build their lives upon a foundation of sand and. when adversity and temptations come, they fall. Others build their lives up- on a solid rock foundation, and later, when the trials of life come, no matter how hard or severe those trials may be, their lives go on steadfastly to the end. Some people are like chaff, blown about by the wind this way and that way, they never get anywhere. Other people are like the solid, heavy grain. They are not moved by the winds that blow, but grow on continually and produce a good harvest of ripened grain. If you would attain the best, you must each day reach up and out a little farther. Reach up as high as you can for power and reach out as far as you can with influence. So will your power and your influence for good ever spread up and out to a great- er height and to a wider range in your world of associates and fellow-work- ers. If you would attain the best, you must have a high ideal and so conduct yourselves that each day you come just a little nearer to your ideal. Keep Oct., 1929 THE POSSIBLE YOU 1007 yourselves normal, shun pride and af- fectedness — be yourself, each of you. There is nothing that belittles one in the estimation of his fellows like af- fectedness. Learn to know and appre- ciate your surroundings. Keep your lives in tune with the infinite and the birds will inspire you with their sweet, melodious songs; the trees by their stal- wart growth and majestic beauty; the shrubs, the flowers by their variety of color and sweet perfume; the very winds by their persistency and tenacity to life; the golden grain waving graciously in the breeze; the grass by its velvety green and the pleasant odor of new-mown hay. To know all is indeed a rare accomplishment. It makes one more satisfied with and appre- ciative of life. It makes us understand and appreciate the beauties with which God has surrounded us. It makes man see the glory of God and the majesty of his handiwork in a different light from what he was ever able to do be- fore. It enables him to say with Shakespeare that he finds: "Tongues in trees, Sermons in stones, Books in the running brooks, And Good in everything." And with Bryant let him say: "Flower in the cranniest wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, And hold you here, root and all, In my hand — little flower. But if I could know what you are, Root and all — and all in all, I would know what God and man is. And with Tennyson he can say: "To him, who in the love of nature Holds communion with her various forms, She speaks a various language." If you would attain the best, you must learn to profit by the experience of others. Experience is a dear teach- er, so if you can use the experience of others you will be able to get a grert deal farther in life than will be the case if you have to use your own al- ways. Life is full of mirages, do not follow them, for they are not what they seem to be. Get the genuine, that which is true to the heart, that alone is worth following, seeking and attain- ing. Young people, you are the great American hope. The future and the ultimate destiny of this country is in your hands; will you make it what it ought to be? It is your privilege, your duty and your task, to be awake, to see your opportunities, to grasp them, and then develop them to their utmost. Then will the vision of Ingersoll be realized when he said: "I see a land of happy homes, a land where music's myriad voice is heard and lips are rich and full of love and song. A land where no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns. A land without the beggars out- stretched hand, without the miser's heart- less stony stare, without the piteous wail of woe. A land where labor reaps its true reward, where work and worth go hand in hand. And as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the land, and over all, in the deep blue of the heavens, shines the bright star of eternal hope." Abraham Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bdcby Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consola- tion that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrafice upon the altar of freedom. -Wash- ington, November 21, 1864.