Choosing Spiritual Purpose Over Secular Success: Lessons from Brad Wilcox

In a recent episode of the One by One podcast, hosts Nick and Austin engage in a transformative conversation inspired by Brad Wilcox's message about prioritizing spiritual education and building people over financial gain. Brad Wilcox, a respected educator and speaker in the Latter-day Saint community, has long advocated for focusing on what truly matters in life - developing our divine potential and helping others do the same.

Joining the hosts is regular guest Meghan Farner, who brings her own remarkable story of leaving a lucrative career to pursue spiritual growth and service. Together, they explore why modern Latter-day Saints must urgently shift their focus from secular achievements to eternal purposes and how this transformation requires both courage and divine guidance.

The Fallacy of Secular Success  

The conversation begins with a striking observation: increased secularism correlates directly with decreased religiosity and poorer mental health outcomes. Nick shares research he encountered during bishopric training, where Brad Wilcox presented compelling evidence that as societies become more secular, families struggle more, relationships weaken, and mental illness increases. This isn't merely correlation - the hosts argue it's causation, with secular pursuits creating a void that material success can never fill.

Austin offers his perspective as a former therapist who directed clinics and trained other therapists. Despite achieving what many would consider professional success, he found himself increasingly disconnected from his spiritual purpose. The therapeutic world, he explains, often strips away spirituality, forcing practitioners to fit into narrow boxes that exclude their whole selves. This compartmentalization creates a fundamental disconnect between who we are as eternal beings and how we operate in professional settings.

The hosts challenge listeners to examine their own pursuits. Are we climbing corporate ladders that lead nowhere eternal? Are we sacrificing family time and spiritual growth for achievements that won't matter beyond mortality? The message is clear: when we prioritize secular success over spiritual development, we're essentially trading eternal treasures for temporary gains.

Personal Journeys of Transformation  

Each host shares their personal journey of stepping away from conventional success to pursue their divine calling. Austin describes his transition from the addiction recovery field to creating spiritual programs that address deeper human needs. Despite being at a "top clinic" with extensive training in various therapeutic modalities, he realized that secular approaches alone couldn't address the fundamental spiritual wounds people carried.

Meghan's story is particularly compelling. She had achieved what many would consider the ideal work situation - earning $115,000 annually while working from home just 20 hours per week, with her children by her side. Yet despite this seemingly perfect arrangement, she felt deeply unsatisfied. Following divine promptings about understanding her Heavenly Mother and divine feminine nature, she lost her job within a week - a change she now recognizes as divine intervention rather than misfortune.

Nick adds his own experience of repeatedly feeling prompted to help couples and families, despite not having all the answers about how to accomplish this mission. His journey illustrates a critical principle: God often calls us to act before revealing the complete picture. The hosts emphasize that these career transitions weren't about rejecting success but about redefining it according to eternal rather than temporal metrics.

The Heroine's Journey vs. The Hero's Journey  

A fascinating portion of the discussion explores how men and women often require different spiritual paths to discover their true identities. Meghan introduces the concept of the "heroine's journey," which differs fundamentally from the traditional "hero's journey" that dominates Western culture. While the masculine journey typically involves going outward to conquer and achieve, thereby discovering identity through action, the feminine journey often requires going inward to reclaim an identity that was present from the beginning but has been veiled or forgotten.

The hosts discuss how modern society's emphasis on productivity and external achievement - what Meghan calls "masculine" traits - has led many women to adopt false beliefs about their worth being tied to their output. She explains that women often arrive on earth with a strong sense of identity that becomes obscured through mortality's challenges and false traditions. The spiritual journey for women, therefore, often involves unlearning societal expectations and reconnecting with their divine nature.

Austin adds that men, too, must develop their "feminine" aspects - qualities like nurturing, compassion, and mercy that Christ perfectly embodied. He shares how many men he's worked with excel at the "warrior phase" but struggle to embrace the "lover phase," which involves tapping into godly nurturing aspects. The discussion reveals that both genders need to integrate masculine and feminine divine attributes to achieve wholeness.

Urgency in Spiritual Education  

The episode takes its title from Brad Wilcox's message: "There is a hurry." The hosts emphasize that spiritual education cannot be postponed until retirement or some convenient future time. Nick points out that in the 1800s, Joseph Smith established the School of the Prophets - one of the first institutions designed to teach adults how to better fulfill their divine roles. This wasn't about secular education but about learning to become prophets in their own right.

The conversation distinguishes between education that leads to worldly success and education that leads to salvation. They reference Joseph Smith's teaching that "a man is saved no sooner than he gets knowledge" - but the knowledge referred to is spiritual understanding, not secular credentials. The hosts challenge the common assumption that formal education automatically equals the kind of learning God desires for His children.

Key principles for urgent spiritual education include:

• Seeking revelation directly from God rather than relying solely on human wisdom

• Developing the gift of discernment to distinguish truth from error

• Being willing to sacrifice false beliefs that seem comfortable but limit growth

• Pursuing knowledge that edifies rather than simply entertains or profits

• Creating space for both learning new truths and unlearning false traditions

• Recognizing that spiritual education is a lifelong journey requiring daily effort

Becoming As a Little Child  

The episode concludes with a powerful reminder about childlike faith and curiosity. Nick shares a touching story about his young son asking if he could build entire houses when he grows up. While children naturally dream without limits and create without fear of judgment, adults often become paralyzed by concerns about security, success, and others' opinions. This shift from childlike wonder to adult hesitation represents a spiritual loss that must be reclaimed.

The hosts extend an invitation to listeners: Begin asking God the questions that truly matter. Stop postponing your spiritual education in favor of temporal pursuits. Recognize that you're already living with some level of deception through false beliefs and traditions, and the only path to truth is through sincere seeking and divine revelation. Most importantly, have the courage to act on the promptings you receive, even when the full picture isn't clear. Just as Stephen Covey and John Huntsman built their success on serving others rather than pursuing profit, modern disciples must prioritize building souls over building portfolios. The time for this shift isn't someday - it's today.