The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.

This live performance of Music & the Spoken Word is produced with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square practicing COVID protocols.

Music

Conductors: Mack Wilberg and Ryan Murphy
Organist: Andrew Unsworth
Narrator: Lloyd Newell

“Scatter Sunshine”
Music: Edwin O. Excell
Lyrics: Lanta Wilson Smith
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy

“Hear Him”
Music: Ryan Murphy
Lyrics: Wendy Randall

“Prelude on ‘Prospect of Heaven’” organ solo
Music: Andrew Unsworth

“How Bright Is the Day”¹
Music and Lyrics: American folk hymn
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Anyone Can Move a Mountain”
Music and Lyrics: Johnny Marks
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”²
Music: German hymn tune
Lyrics: Joachim Neander; translated by Catherine Winkworth
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

1. On the CD Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
2. On the CD America's Choir.

The Spoken Word

He Simply Went to Work

We all have things to do that we don’t really want to do. Sometimes we dread something so much that we postpone it for a day, a week, a month, or even longer. Perhaps we secretly hope that if we put it off long enough, it will magically disappear. Or maybe we tell ourselves that we’re just waiting for the right mood—that we need inspiration to strike before we get to work. And you can’t force inspiration, right?

But as an accomplished artist once said: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”¹ Commenting on that thought, an expert on motivation gave this advice: “If you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it.”²

It’s true. Most of the world’s work gets done by people who may not feel like it at the time. They just do it. They get up and go to work, day after day, and don’t wait to feel like it. If they did, not much would ever get done. We’re all blessed by the dedication of such people.

Of course, we don’t feel like doing hard things—they’re hard! But deep inside, we know that some things simply need to be done. Not because we like it or because it’s pleasant or fun. Just because it’s right, it’s important, and it’s needed.

Someone close to a prominent leader was asked about the leader’s unusual ability to accomplish so much. Many thought he had a natural disposition to work hard, or maybe he was blessed with good genes or good fortune. But his close friend simply noted, “It wasn’t luck or blessings that kept him going; what kept him going was grit. He just kept working even when he didn’t feel like it. He had things to do, so he simply went to work.”

Grit is the determination, the willpower, to keep working even when you’d rather not. And often enough, grit, like inspiration, isn’t a requirement for hard work—it’s the result! Then, when it’s over, there’s nothing quite like looking back with satisfaction at a job well done, a task completed, and finding that you do feel inspired, after all, to do the next hard thing.

1. Chuck Close, in Heidi Grant, “How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To,” Harvard Business Review, Feb. 14, 2014, hbr.org.
2. Grant, “How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To,” hbr.org.