When Hiram Page was deceived by Satan

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I was recently reading over D&C 28 about the principles given to Oliver Cowdery of how he was to act and also with reference to Hiram Page and the deceptive revelations through his seer stone.

The Church’s new publication Revelations In Context has a neat essay about the overall principle of how all things must be done in order.

As I was reading different things about the story of Hiram Page, it became apparent that there were a number of things going on. 1) Hiram Page had his own seer stone. 2) He was receiving competing revelations, commandments, and prophecy from it. 3) He had written those things done, so he had competing writings as well. 4) He was teaching those things to others, setting himself up as a competing authority, even if he didn’t realize that was what he was doing.  That’s a lot of competing aspects.  I have to wonder if he would have been let alone if he had just used the seer stone for personal revelation, rather than general revelation.

In D&C 28, Oliver Cowdery was told of Hiram Page, “those things which he hath written from that stone are not of me and that Satan deceiveth him.” (v11).  In what way had Satan deceived Hiram Page?

The next verse gives some insight:

For, behold, these things have not been appointed unto him, neither shall anything be appointed unto any of this church contrary to the church covenants. (v12)

Evidently Hiram Page felt his gift with his seer stone meant he was appointed to receive those things for other people in the church. So the Lord had to tell him he wasn’t appointed.  It is tempting to think a special spiritual gift means we have been appointed to make some major contribution.  It gratifies the ego.

Happily, the next verse tells us some principles about how the Lord appoints people in His kingdom. “For all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.” (v13)  Callings come by leaders in authority, by common consent by the members, and by ordination or setting apart. It’s a great safety feature in the kingdom of God, since it prevents a charismatic individual from usurping leadership and leading people away.  These principles are supposed to be a barrier to that occurrence, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen from time to time that people allow themselves to get led away anyway.

Throughout D&C 28, the Lord gives His response in the form of other principles to Oliver Cowdery to counteract various competing aspects of Hiram Page’s supposed revelations.

1)   Oliver was to be obedient to the things Joseph Smith received (not Hiram Page)(v3). 

2)   Oliver could speak by commandment to the church, but not write by commandment. Instead, he was to write by wisdom (v5). I suspect this was to prevent Oliver from falling into the same error Hiram Page had, of thinking his writings had more weight than they did. Writing by wisdom is non-coercive, speaks to the mind, and requires the writer to develop good persuasive skills. It allows the reader to receive edification, not just instructions, and freely exercise agency.

3)   Oliver was told he should not command “him who is at thy head, and at the head of the church” (v6).  Commandments flow downward, not upward.

4)   Oliver was told Joseph had the keys of the mysteries and the revelations that were sealed (v7). The image of having a key helps cement in the mind the idea that the Lord can give a prophet a spiritual power that He does not give to others. Yet, at the same time, Oliver is promised his own revelations.

5)   Oliver was also told the location of the city of Zion was not yet revealed. This was to counter Hiram Page’s false revelation/prophecy that supposedly revealed it. It is interesting that the Lord would give a revelation to tell what He has not yet revealed. That would stop any speculative discussion or false claims on the subject.

6)   Oliver was told that the things Hiram Page had written were not of the Lord. That put an end to any notion the competing writings had any virtue to them.

It is interesting that although Oliver Cowdery was influenced by the things Hiram Page had, D&C 28 instructed Oliver to do the work to reclaim Hiram Page from his errors. To me, this sets out the principle that when one realizes they have been deceived by a false prophet, they need to try to reclaim them and explain the error and where the deception lay.  Those who have escaped the deception may be able to help those still in it.  I also notice this discussion is to be private—“between him and thee alone” (v11)—in order to prevent public humiliation and preserve dignity.

I appreciate how these principles keep the kingdom of God safe from wolves in sheep’s clothing who would devour the flock. It makes it so we aren’t tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine blowing every direction. It helps us know instructions have much more weight coming from above us in the church leadership than from other directions. It helps us know that writings from the prophet have more weight than other writings. It helps us know that when there is a conflict between outside guidance and prophetic guidance, we should choose to follow the prophet.  It helps us know better how to instruct each other without presuming to command.

Jesus’s warning to those who don’t repent

In 3 Nephi there are repeated sections when Jesus warns the future Gentiles that they must repent or face calamity:

11 Therefore it shall come to pass that whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles, (it shall be done even as Moses said) they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant.

12 And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.

13 Their hand shall be lifted up upon their adversaries, and all their enemies shall be cut off.

14 Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots;

15 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds;

16 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers;

17 Thy graven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands;

18 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities.

19 And it shall come to pass that all lyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away.

20 For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel;

21 And I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

22 But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance; (3 Nephi 21:11-22)

This block of verses is peculiar because they seem so violent or seem to promise violence against those who do not repent and believe in Christ.  I’ve puzzled over these verses for years, and my opinion continues to evolve about what they mean.

Recently I was reading them and a key thing I noticed in them is the repeated phrase “cut off.”  (I have marked the repetitions of this phrase.)

Who will be cut off?

--whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles

--Adversaries and enemies

--Horses and chariots

--Cities and strongholds

--Witchcrafts and soothsayers

--graven images and standing images

--Those who will not repent and come unto Christ

It is also implied that the same cutting off will be done to “groves,” which were usually a term used to refer to places of immoral fertility rites.

What does it mean to be cut off?

When something is cut off, it is separated from a unified whole.  When people are cut off from the Lord’s people, it means they are excommunicated.

You can’t cut off someone who wasn’t a member in the first place, so this section is not directed to nonmember Gentiles, but to members of the Latter-day church of Christ.

The list of those who will be cut off is sometimes very clear and other times vague, so it makes sense to examine closer each of those characteristics or things that will be cut off to see what we can learn.

The Lord will cut off “whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him [Joseph Smith] to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles” (v11) – This could be interpreted to mean those who do not believe the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine & Covenants.  But there is no specific hunt for these people. Rather, they betray themselves through their public unbelief and efforts to lead others not to believe either. Eventually their case comes to the attention of priesthood leaders and they have to be dealt with.

Adversaries and enemies shall be cut off (v13). This sounds like anti-Mormons inside the church and members who fight the church over specific issues.  Again, they betray themselves and have to be dealt with eventually.

Horses and chariots shall be cut off out of the midst of Israel (v14). Horses and chariots are implements of war, but as the saying goes, guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Objects don’t get excommunicated, but the people who use them do.  Here we have to tread carefully because there are faithful Saints in the military, so this can’t be a blanket condemnation of the military. But perhaps there are people whose default problem-solving method is force and violence, and it is so much a part of who they are that they refuse to change. These are abusive and oppressive types. They are certainly in danger of being cut off if they do not repent.

Cities and strongholds will be cut off (v15). Cities evoke the idea of a large group of people who are very closely associated with each other. I think this tells us that even those who are part of a large group inside the church that are fighting the church are not immune from the danger of apostasy and subsequent excommunication. Even if a whole ward or a stake was to apostatize and set themselves against the brethren, they can still be cut off.  I haven’t heard of a case where this happened, but this tells us it is certainly possible.

Witchcrafts and soothsayers will be cut off out of the land (v16). Here we have false prophets and those who seemingly bewitch others with counterfeit gospels and mysteries. Sooner or later they will be known by their fruits, which will not be good, and if they don’t repent, they will be removed.

Graven images will be cut off (v17).  This is another case where the thing is standing in for the person who made it and/or worships it. Modern idolatry is all about messed up priorities.  Whenever someone puts something at a higher priority than God, it will sooner or later lead them to sin, and if they don’t repent of it, they will remove themselves or be removed from the church.

Groves will be plucked up out of the cities (v18). I’ve already explained what groves mean.  Here the groves are another thing standing in for the person in question, someone who has committed immoral acts.  Those who don’t repent of their immorality and abominations will be cut off.

A list of other sins shall be done away – lying, deceiving, envying, strifes, priestcrafts, and whoredoms (v19).  Saying that the sins shall be done away I think emphasizes that the sins can be removed and the people purified, which is what we all hope for, rather than for the penalty of excommunication being imposed.

“whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel” (v20) – In the end, it doesn’t matter much what sin causes the problem. If someone isn’t willing to repent of it and come to Christ, that will lead to them being cut off.  The thing is, when one is faced with this, it will feel simultaneously as though the sin in question is no big deal and not worth the attention of a discipline hearing, but also it will feel like that sin is a major part of the person’s character, such that giving it up will feel like a betrayal of who one is.  (Interesting how such contrasting feelings combine to discourage from repentance. I’ll give you three guesses as to who would promote those feelings.)  The truth is the opposite – it is worth having leaders look into it, and giving it up is an affirmation of one’s identity as a child of God, and one is better without that sin.

So why is it important for us to know about this?

Again, we should tune into the fact that a person can’t be cut off from the covenant people of Israel unless they were once a part of them in the first place.  The warning isn’t to outsiders, but to church members.  It is a warning from Christ Himself that He will not suffer the members to go on indefinitely in their sin just because they belong to the church.  Complacent members are liable to think that the acceptance and welcoming tolerance of church leaders gives one a free pass to sin as one likes and still enjoy full fellowship. It is true that any person is always welcome, but membership and full fellowship in the church has its conditions, which Christ sets, which include repenting of one’s sins.

Christ’s words affirm this watch-care will be part of the Latter-day church of Christ.  I for one am grateful for it, since being called on the carpet at one point by a priesthood leader once saved me from dwindling towards apostasy.  I had to make a choice to humble myself, and the Spirit fought with me until I realized my errors and repented.

David Whitmer’s problem

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In D&C 30, David Whitmer is chastened for a number of faults. I think it is worth looking at them along with the context because there are some good things to learn from it that will help us today.

1 Behold, I say unto you, David, that you have feared man and have not relied on me for strength as you ought.

2 But your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of me, your Maker, and the ministry whereunto you have been called; and you have not given heed unto my Spirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded.

3 Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received. (D&C 30:1-3)

Just from reading these verses, you’d think that David Whitmer had just not been diligent in his service and got scared away from it by some kind of worldly concerns or by people trying to discourage him. However, the context was a bit different.  David Whitmer had been one of the pople who had been led away by Hiram Page and his supposed seerstone and had been one of the people instrumental in trying to persuade others of its authenticity.

In that context, it is very interesting that the Lord says David Whitmer got in that trouble because he feared men and had his mind on earthly things. You’d think his problem was the opposite—fearing God too much and having his mind too much on revelation and it caused him to look for it in the wrong place.  What this counter-intuitive diagnosis shows us is that the Lord can really see what the problem is, and that it can be the very opposite of what we would expect. (And if that is true for David Whitmer, it can be true of any of us.)

So in what way had David Whitmer feared man and not relied on the Lord as he ought in the matter of Hiram Page?  It sounds like had begun giving credence to Hiram Page because of the growing number of people who were listening to Hiram Page’s supposed revelations.  There is an element of peer pressure here.  And it is implied that he knew there was something not right about the situation, but he was afraid to depend on the Lord and the truth’s he’d learned previously.  He didn’t want to be the one standing alone.   The thing is, if he had stood alone against Hiram Page, Heavenly Father would have helped him and he would eventually have been vindicated.

Another thing the Lord said was part of David Whitmer’s problem was that his mind was on the things of the earth more than things of God or his ministry he’d been called to. I think this is saying that he should have been focusing on doing his calling and strengthening his own ties with the Lord rather than looking for the sensational and intriguing.

I think we can identify this problem in ourselves from time to time too. Haven’t we all found ourselves looking for the new and sensational at conference, rather than the truths that are timeless and unchanging?  But so often we stray from the thoughts of our individual ministry and thoughts of our God because it requires effort on our part. We see our ministry as a demanding duty and our natural man and woman is inclined to shirk it and look for an easy way, a quick fix, which of course Satan is only too happy to give through false prophets.

The last problem pointed out is more obvious. David Whitmer had not given heed to the Spirit or those in the church set over him as leaders, and instead he’d been persuaded by those not commanded by God. (If they hadn’t been commanded by God, they were commanded by the adversary.)  It tells us that at some point David had been warned by spiritual impressions, but he’d ignored them. And he’d not heeded his leaders either. The church had to learn that commandments and revelations are given by God in an orderly fashion, through the prophet, through channels of stewardship, so that we know of their authenticity.  It was the same then, and it is the same today. It is a great safeguard to the church. It keeps us from being buffeted back and forth, led to and fro by every wind of doctrine blowing about the world through society.

So, in sum, this tells us that if we are led away by false revelation and false prophets outside the order of the church, it is because:

--we have feared men more than God

--we have not been attentive to things of God and our ministry

--we have not given heed to the Spirit or to those set over us

--we have been persuaded by those not commanded by God

It also tell us that if we encounter those teaching commandments and revelations outside of the order of the church, we can do best if we

--rely on the Lord and stand firm, even though peer pressure

--keep focused on strengthening our ties with God by keeping the simple everyday commandments and doing our callings

--listen to the Spirit and to our leaders’ counsel

--avoid persuasions by those outside the order of the church

It seems appropriate to say a little something about Mormon blogs at this juncture.  As a blogger, I am outside the order of the church, so I don’t have authority to give commandments and revelations to anyone but myself.  My interpretations of scripture are not binding on anyone.

Why then do I share the things I learn here with everyone?  It’s because I hope to be a positive influence on the world, letting my light shine, hopefully bringing glory to Heavenly Father by showing how helpful His words in the scriptures are.  But while I hope that, I think the primary beneficiary of this blog is me because of how the preparation and writing process facilitates my own gospel learning. 

Results of Nehor’s doctrine of preacher popularity

And he [Nehor] had gone about among the people, preaching to them that which he termed to be the word of God, bearing down against the church; declaring unto the people that every priest and teacher ought to become popular; and they ought not to labor with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the people . . . .

9 (Alma 1:3)

In Alma 1, we get a pretty brief sketch of Nehor’s doctrines and also a result of how those doctrines affected his behavior. (He has more doctrine besides this that denies the fall and the necessity of repentance, but I want to look at his doctrine of preacher popularity.)

In v3 it says he thought every priest and teacher ought to become popular, that they ought not to labor with their hands, and they ought to be supported by the people.

It might be worth it to think about what such a system was meant to do and what benefits Nehor believed it would bring.

To the people, the benefit would be priests and teachers they liked and wanted to hear.  To the preachers themselves, the benefits were an appreciative audience and subsidized living so that more time could be spent teaching and ministering. To the government, a religious system requiring teachers be popular would have the perceived benefit of keeping a populace united longer and thus keep the peace and prevent dissentions of large blocks of people unwilling to accept unpopular doctrine.

Also, considering the fact that the Law of Moses provided for the priests to be given a portion of the sacrifices brought to the temple, it could be said that Nehor was merely trying to extend this system and make it more effective.  According to the Law, the priests received perishable offerings, and those offerings had to be discarded if they were not eaten after two days.  Nehor’s teaching could be have been seen as suggesting greater efficiency, advising offerings of money that would be non-perishable.  It is easy to see why his ideas would be attractive in that respect. (This might also alert us that the Law of Moses policies must have had a symbolic purpose that would have been lost if Nehor’s ideas had been allowed to change temple worship.)

Theoretically, Nehor’s doctrines of popularity look like they would create a win-win-win situation, but like all false doctrines, when the fruits begin to be revealed, they turn out to be lose-lose-lose.  This is seen in v9 when Nehor encounters Gideon, who will not yield and who instead admonishes Nehor with the real words of God.

Now, because Gideon withstood him [Nehor] with the words of God he was wroth with Gideon, and drew his sword and began to smite him. Now Gideon being stricken with many years, therefore he was not able to withstand his blows, therefore he was slain by the sword. (Alma 1:9)

In a religious system requiring teacher and preacher popularity, it becomes necessary for listeners to not only indicate their favor clearly, but to indicate their disfavor clearly.  And if rejected preachers do not stop preaching, the popularity system is required by their own values to ratchet up the rejection until the unpopular preaching stops. (Hence, severe persecution and martyrdom, a la Ammonihah.)

Also, in a religious system of preacher popularity, those who do not like a popular preacher become the transgressors who must be punished, since they are not submitting to the majority law. Thus, Nehor (having started the system) considered himself the authority best suited to enforcing the values of popularity.

When we see it this way, we see how the relatively benign-sounding value of popularity, if allowed to become a governing principle, becomes tyrannical and doesn’t leave room for those who even believe or preach differently.

Nehor was guilty of murder (and was of course taken and tried for his crime), so in a society in which his was not the majority, his system did not bring the peace it seemed to promise. Even when his priestcraft spread and his adherents began persecuting those whose views they didn’t like, it didn’t bring peace. And in later years in the city of Ammonihah, which was governed by a priestcraft leadership, it is shown that their system eventually brought them to destruction. A city full of popular teachers is not going to teach unpopular truths, even if those principles are necessary to save.  Thus, we can’t expect truths to survive undiluted in any system that uses popular choice of teachers as a principle of organization.

I think this is helpful to realize because popularity is a big part of how our culture is organized today.  The TV shows to be broadcast or movies to be distributed depend on becoming popular. Authors want their books to become popular bestsellers.  Political leaders must become popular to get elected. (We see how it is a flawed system, but checks and balances make it less flawed.)

It the midst of all this, it is nice to remember that popularity is not the way to measure truth.  The truth will be the same whether the majority subscribes to it or not.  It will be the same, whether the one who teaches it is skilled with rhetoric or not.  Our responsibility is to seek for the truth and hold on once we find it, irrespective of the number of people who believe it, irrespective of the likeableness of the teacher.  We can look for people who tell the truth.  We’ll find it in everything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy.  Also, it is nice to know that our church leaders aren’t chosen based on a popularity campaign.

King’s Saul’s first attempt to kill David

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9 And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

10 ¶And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit which was not of God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.

11 And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

12 ¶And Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul. (1 Sam. 18:9-12, JST emphasized)

This is the beginning of Saul’s attempts to kill David.  This is kind of a disturbing story, but you’ll bear with me, we’ll see if we can learn some good things from it besides the obvious “don’t murder people.”

It is easy to think that Saul wasn’t really responsible for his actions here if he was under the influence of an evil spirit, but Saul knew what he was doing.  He was using his past history of disordered thinking as a cover for his attempt on David’s life, both to get David to come within range of his spear and for exoneration once the deed was done.  If any of us ever have troubles with mental illness, I hope we never try to use it as an excuse or cover to hurt someone deliberately. 

If a spirit which was not of God was upon Saul, what are we to think when it says he prophesied in the midst of the house?  What kind of prophesying is the evil spirit going to induce?  Probably not the good kind.  This reminds me of some verses from the D&C:

17 Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way?

18 And if it be by some other way it is not of God….

23 And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness. (D&C 50:17-18, 23)

I’ll bet if we could have heard what Saul said, we would be able to tell that he didn’t have the right spirit with him.

David was in a precarious position. Unless he was one of those amazing musicians who could play without looking at his instrument, he would be paying attention to getting his fingers in the right place, which would give him only the briefest of moments to look up and notice Saul aiming a spear at him.

It also says David avoided out of Saul’s presence twice.  It is hard to tell whether this means two separate incidents in which David got spears thrown at him or if there was just one incident and David preferred to avoid Saul at least one other time.  However, you have to give David credit for bravery (staying around) and restraint (not immediately avenging himself).  He had to rely on God. (After all, what human authority could he go to about what happened?  His trouble was with the king himself!)

I have to point out here another way Saul made a big mistake.  In the past, music helped Saul get free of the evil spirit tormenting him.  But this time, in choosing to try to kill David played, Saul resisted the calming influence in the music.  Do you think music is going to help Saul after this?  Probably not because he gave power to the evil spirit instead.  He’d have to repent and then make careful efforts to follow good impulses and resist bad ones.

From that we learn we can’t resist the Spirit of the Lord in any of the number of ways he tries to reach us without consequences.  We can’t resist good without putting ourselves in the power of the devil.  On the positive end, we can’t resist the devil without putting ourselves more in the Lord’s power, which is where we want to be anyway..  The influence we list to obey will have power over us.

I think it is interesting that after this incident the one who is afraid isn’t David.  It’s Saul.  Acting on his suspicions didn’t make Saul feel any more secure, but actually less.

Okay, so let’s tally up what we’ve learned from this:

·      Don’t use mental illness as a cover for deliberately hurting people.

·      Evil spirits don’t bring good prophesying.

·      When in danger from a direct superior, you have to rely on God.

·      There are consequences for resisting the Holy Ghost when it is manifest in good influences.

Projects like ravening wolves

Here’s a block of verses that can be applied in an unexpected way to our efforts to de-clutter:

15 ¶Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matt. 7:15-20)

Firstly, who are the false prophets when we are organizing and de-cluttering? They are the advertisers that tell us we NEED this and we NEED that or we won’t succeed/be worthwhile/be loved. They are the ravening wolves wishing to devour our dollars, wishing to sell us things even if we don’t really need them.

But we can also apply this as we are trying to de-clutter, if we think of “false prophets” as also meaning “false projects.” Let me explain why this can help.

As I have helped a number of people de-clutter, I have observed that they are incredibly creative people. They have a lot of projects that they are working on, projects that are in various stages of completion, with a backlog of materials to use up. And as we go through their stuff, we run across things that could become functional if they were fixed. These people I help say, “Oh, I could do this and this and this to it and then I could use it.” They essentially create another project for themselves in an effort to ensure that they waste nothing. (The problem is, they already are drowning in real projects. They don’t need another project.) This doesn’t happen just once. It happens over and over again in a single de-cluttering session.

Most of the time, those projects are false projects.

This is why we should beware of false projects as well as false prophets. False projects come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. False projects appear to keep you from wasting resources, but really they waste your time and energy, devouring it so it can’t be used on higher priorities.

• False projects have little or no planning to them. They are taken on impulsively, without consideration for all the other projects in the works and all your other priorities in life.
• False projects have little if any thought about whom they will benefit and what the real payoff is.
• False projects are started with little thought of how much effort will be required to complete them. It is simply assumed that it should be easy, and the results will be “so cool.” Cool for who? Why?
• False projects have few if any resources assigned to them. This means you expect yourself to complete it without spending any money, and without taking any time away from everything else you have to do, and it can’t be delegated to anyone else. AND they are undertaken without tools that are best for the job. (Or the opposite may be true—the false project has so much time, money, and effort given to it far out of proportion to its importance and benefit, to the detriment of more important priorities.)
• False projects don’t have anyone asking for status updates about when they will be done.
• False projects have requirements that morph inexplicably over time into something more complicated and time-consuming and soul-sucking than you thought.
• False projects have a self-coercive quality to them; you feel like you have to do them to prove that you are good/organized/talented/dedicated/important/loving/etc. They are born out of insecurities and they batter us with guilt when we look at them sitting there.

False projects don’t have good fruits. As said before, they may have the appearance of benefitting us, but if examined carefully, it may be unexpectedly hard to explain what that benefit is.

How can you keep from getting pulled into a false project? How can you keep from getting into too many projects?

Here’s a simple practical solution. Make a list of ALL the projects that you have. Then try putting them in order from most important to least important. Pretend your family is a job and you have to explain exactly how each project will benefit you and the family.

Pretend your project is a product you are making to sell. Who will buy it? Who will the finished product benefit? If you can’t think of a customer who would “buy” it, then it is a false project. If you wouldn’t buy it, then why should you even do it?

What is your return on investment? What benefit do you expect from completing it? It has to be a reasonable benefit and it has to be defined.

Do you have a deadline for this project? If there is no deadline, there is no reason to push it forward.

What is the budget for the project? What time and money are you willing to spend on it? Why are you willing to spend on it?

Maybe the project was a good idea at first but circumstances changed and the project no longer fits current needs. Allow yourself to reconsider the project at various points to determine whether it is still viable or not.

Does the project fit with your abilities and interests? If it is something outside your abilities, then the project cost rises because educating yourself and experimenting are little mini-projects that have to be added to your project.

If you have determined that a project is a false project, do not be afraid to let go of it. You will feel better for it.

Life is short and you only have so much time in a day. We need projects that enrich our lives and help us increase our talents and skills so we can help others. We may not get to all we want to do in this life, but I have confidence that in the next life we will have all the opportunities we ever wanted to try new things and build all our skills that we never had time to develop in this life.