How Can I Have Success and Joy in My Life?

A sense of gratitude is critical to the success and joy you hope to experience. Gratitude keeps you humble. Gratitude opens your eyes to the reality of God and the love of others. It makes the help you receive in life lift you up rather than lead you into dependency.

On the other hand, ingratitude leads to a sense of entitlement, or perhaps it is a reflection of an already existing sense of entitlement. Either way, a belief that the world or some other person, government, or entity is responsible for meeting your needs and ensuring your comfort and happiness is deadening.

You know by virtue of all your work and personal effort that your life is your responsibility. Your choices will ultimately make the difference for you. My counsel for you is to accept responsibility—willingly, gladly, excitedly—for yourself, for what you are, and for what you may become, and in addition, for the influence you can wield in the world.

A crucial element of that personal responsibility is a sense of personal accountability to God. We each owe our creation and mortal life to Him. The capacity to live, to choose, and to act we owe to Him who “is preserving [us] from day to day, by lending [us] breath, that [we] may live and move and do according to [our] own will.”

We owe our redemption from death, both spiritual and physical, to God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father sent His Son to “be lifted up upon the cross” so that, as the Savior explained, “as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.”

There will be a Judgment Day, and faith in your Heavenly Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ and Their right to rule in your life will lead you to do the right thing. It will also empower you to have Their help, and with that help to dare and to do great things. My plea to you is to welcome your Heavenly Father, your Savior, and the Holy Spirit fully into your life. And not just welcome, but plead and strive for Their promise to be realized that you might always have the Holy Spirit to be with you.

Your generation is at times portrayed as increasingly anxious and often depressed. However accurate or inaccurate these assessments may be, one thing is certain—life without God often is fraught with fear and foreboding.

By contrast, confidence and calmness come in making one’s life a shared undertaking with God. This means coupling faith in God and Christ with an energizing sense of personal responsibility. This concept is captured in the advice: “Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

I have spoken of gratitude, personal responsibility, and faith in God and Christ. If each of these abound in your life, I have no fear for your future. Yes, challenges of many kinds will come. None of us escapes them entirely; it was not meant to be otherwise. But with these qualities, you will surmount your challenges and avoid much unnecessary adversity. President Russell M. Nelson (1924–2025) taught:

“When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. … For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!”

You can rely on the love of your Heavenly Father, the grace of His Only Begotten Son, and the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. They are real. They live. They know you, and They love you. Draw upon Their help, answer to Them for your life, and be a pillar of strength and resilience for others. Be grateful for the constant blessings that flow to you, even the breath of each moment.