Your Covenants Are Your Superpower

I've been thinking a lot lately about why we do what we do. We go to school to gain knowledge. We work to take care of ourselves and our families. But if I'm being honest with myself, I want my life — including my career — to mean something more than just a résumé and a paycheck. I want everything I do to have an eternal purpose.

Elder Quentin L. Cook, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has taught: "I encourage everyone, young and old, to review goals and objectives to exercise greater discipline. Our daily conduct and choices should be consistent with our goals. We need to rise above rationalizations and distractions. It is especially important to make choices with our covenants to serve Jesus Christ in righteousness."

Content creation and media are exciting, creative, and full of opportunity. They're also deeply secular spaces, where the metrics that matter most are clicks, views, and virality, where the pressure to fit a certain mold is very real. And where it's easy to let the world's version of success slowly start to replace your own.

That's the challenge Elder Cook is speaking to — a slow drift of daily choices that stop lining up with who you promised to be.

Everything has a purpose

President Nelson taught that the most important things we can know about ourselves are that we are children of God, children of the covenant, and disciples of Jesus Christ. He was clear: any label that replaces those three "will ultimately let you down," because only those identities "have the power to lead you toward eternal life."

Content creator. Writer. Photographer. Those are wonderful things to be. But they're not the most important thing you are — and your career will go so much better when you keep that in mind.

When you understand that your work has an eternal dimension, it changes how you approach it. You're not just making content. You're exercising the talents that God has given you. You're serving the people who watch or read what you create. You're building something that, done right, can lift people — and that matters to Him.

Linda K. Burton described covenant keepers as people who choose "to bind themselves to our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ." That binding doesn't disappear when you open your laptop or step in front of a camera. It will always be available as long as we are willing to let Them prevail in our lives.

The identity you'll carry

The version of yourself you build during these years tends to stick. The habits, the values, the things you decide are non-negotiable — they become the foundation on which everything else is built.

That's why deciding now matters so much.

In a media industry that rewards conformity to whatever is trending, you can decide now that you will be honest — that you won't create things you don't believe in just because they perform well. In a space where the Sabbath is invisible and deadlines don't take Sundays off, you can decide now that worship comes first, and you'll figure out the work around it. In a culture that often mocks faith, you can decide now that your beliefs aren't a secret you manage but a foundation you stand on.

Covenants are your superpower, not your limitation

I know it can feel like being a covenant keeper in a secular career puts you at a disadvantage.

But President Nelson promised something different. He told young adults that as they keep their covenants, they'll experience "spiritual growth, freedom from fear, and a confidence that you can scarcely imagine now" — and "a positive influence far beyond your natural capacity."

That's a gift.

The content creators who last — the ones who build real, lasting audiences — are almost always the ones who are genuinely themselves. Authenticity is the most valuable currency in media right now. And nothing builds authenticity like knowing who you are and refusing to trade it away.

Your covenants don't hold you back from success. They tell you what kind of success is worth having.

Looking ahead

You are entering a creative field at a moment when the world is hungry for voices that are real and good.

So decide now. Decide that your career will be an expression of your covenants, not a departure from them. That the knowledge you gain, the work you do, and the content you create will all serve something bigger than your follower count.

Because everything we do — when we let it — can have an eternal purpose.

And that's worth protecting.