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Warning: The following story may be a slight exaggeration, but the principles are still true.

The other day, I was at one of my good friend’s birthday dinner. A group of us went out to a little Japanese restaurant to celebrate. Anytime you are able to get together with a group of close friends and enjoy some decent food is a happy occasion. However, while we were waiting for our food to come, something happened which made it an even more joyous evening. I received a text message.

Big deal, right? Actually it was. It was from this exceedingly happy, jubilant person, who either isn’t a texter, or just doesn’t text me. Either way, for me to get that text was monumental. Made my night. And now, here I am blogging about it.

Maybe I am the only one who upon receiving a text from someone, has smiled to myself; not because of the message that is there upon the little screen, but because that little message meant that person took the time to reach out to me. If I am the only one who has smiled at such a thing, then I guess I am weirder than I thought. But I would imagine that most of us at some point have gotten a text, a phone call, a note, a wall post, an email, or something of the sort that has lifted us up. And if we have felt that way in hearing from someone, that means that someone else has felt the same way when we have reached out. I don’t know about you but that makes me want to get the unlimited text plan so I can at least try to spread some joy.

The 10 to 6...

I have been trying a lot of new things this semester. In addition to trying sushi, mochi, cooking, and all the other things that come along with medical school, I have been going to sleep at 10 and waking up at 6 (actually just started trying 5:30, as I want to start working out again.) It's a fairly unique schedule for a single guy my age to keep, especially in medical school, when you always have something more that you could learn. However, I committed myself to keeping this schedule during the weekdays, and I have done a fairly good job at it.

The reason I am doing it is because I came across a quote in the biography of our late Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley. He is quoted as saying "If you go to bed at 10:00 and get up by 6:00 A.M., things will work you for you." I'm the kind of person that wants things to work out for me. So, I decided to experiment upon the Prophet's words.

The funny thing about following prophets, is that they really know their stuff. And considering that God is the one backing up what prophets say, it's a good bet that if you obey, the blessings will come. Although the experiment has only been going for a couple of months, I'm convinced that my life is better now than ever before. Obviously, there's a little more to that than just going sleeping the correct hours during the night, but that schedule has definitely helped me to put first things first, which in turn has led to progression. If you don't believe me, try it.