I was reading a book by Brad Hewitt and James Moline – "Your New Money Mindset." And in the foreword, written by a gentleman named Ron Blue, the founding director of Kingdom Advisors, he says that in today's culture, there are three goals that people are most likely to set their minds on. The 3 areas people wonder about are:
1. How much does it take to be successful?
2. How much does it take to be significant?
3. How much does it take to be secure?
Successful? Significant? Secure? As I read through the book, I was thinking that these 3 areas are key areas for anybody. Everybody thinks about that! Success. Significance. Security. Am I a successful person today? Am I a person of significance? Do I have security today? Those are areas that most people are deeply interested in.
But as I thought about it, I felt that they are vast areas actually – ones that need to be delved in with a certain amount of research and knowledge and wisdom. So I thought that today, on this post, I would just look at success, and deal with it very superficially, but hope that it will give you enough to think about through the day or challenge some of your presuppositions and mindsets.
What would be a good definition of success? In an article in Harvard Business Review, authors Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams say this: "Keeping a high-powered career and a family on track means allocating their energy and time wisely, rather than grabbing at every possible ring." So it seems that to be a successful person, you need to keep both career and family together. The home and the work need to have a certain amount of harmony and equilibrium for one to be termed as successful.
They go on in that particular article after much research -- looking at almost 4000 interviews and 80 surveys – to say that there are basically 2 ways of looking at success: from a subjective aspect and from an objective aspect. Often, our matrix involves only the objective. We try to be hard-nosed about it, we try to be pragmatic and look at only objective issues when we think about success.
What are the objective issues? Let's look at them from the career and the personal aspect.
Career: salary; job title; how prestigious is the firm you work for; awards and accolades that you may have got. These are objective – they can be seen and counted on.
Personal: achievements (maybe running a marathon); community involvement (teaching Sunday school or something like that); presence at kids events – you make sure that you are always there at sports days and annual days; retirement savings that you have put into place.
But the subjective element, which is also so important in helping us to understand whether we are successful people, is this:
Career: enjoyment of work, or is it just something you show up for to get a paycheck at the end of the month; pride in accomplishments; connection with colleagues – do you have good meeting times with them; meaningful company mission – do you buy into the vision and mission of the company and feel that you are a part of something that is whole and good and successful.
Personal: happy marriage; well-adjusted children; fulfilling relationships; ability to relax and recharge.
These are the subjective elements that are important but that we rarely focus on because we go with the objective flow more often than not.
There's enough food for thought in these two areas alone for us to make some kind of assessment. But, here's the thing! I believe that there is a third area that we almost always neglect. Blaise Pascal wrote in Pensees: "What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself." The third area is the spiritual itself—that Vacuum that can be filled by God Himself, and spiritual things connected with Him. Our Scriptures ask this very important question: "What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul?" What profit is there in gaining the whole world, in getting everything that is of materialistic value, and yet losing your soul?
I think that's an important question for us. Even if we go beyond the objective and put in the subjective elements, there always seems to be something that is missing. I believe that it is this component – that God has created within us, a deep desire to connect with Him, and to communicate with Him or else, we will be bereft of something that contributes to us being successful or not.
So, a time to ask the questions: Have I not looked at the subjective element at all in evaluating whether I am successful? In fact, have I been beating myself and saying, "I've got all of these things – I'm doing well objectively, but still unhappy with life?" Maybe you need to look at yourself subjectively too and say, "I've not done too badly. These are things that are happening," and give yourself a pat on the back. Or maybe it's not happening and maybe today could be just a gentle nudge towards a wake-up call that says, "I really need to pay attention to it."
Or maybe you've got both and there is still some amount of dissatisfaction. I would submit to you that that's the spiritual realm that needs to be taken care of. I pray that today, you would have a conversation with the Lord Jesus and ask Him: "In what sense can this third point of the triangle be met? How can this vacuum be filled?" I pray that you would get those answers as you turn to Him and speak with Him. My favourite song in closing: "I talk to Jesus everyday, and He's interested in every word I say; No secretary tells me He's been called away, I talk to Jesus everyday." I pray you'll talk to Him today.
May I pray with you? Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, thank you for each day that we can meet and listen and be challenged by words and thoughts that are from You. I pray today that even as we look at success and how successful we are, that You would pinpoint for us the areas that we are deficient in, whether it is being objective, subjective or spiritual. Lord, above all, give to us a sense of what it means to fill that vacuum with You. We ask this in Your holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
• Brad Hewitt & James Moline, "Your New Money Mindset: Create a Healthy Relationship with Money." Reference to Ron Blue found here.
• Boris Groysberg & Robin Abrahams, "What does Success mean to you?" https://hbr.org/2014/02/what-does-success-mean-to-you
• Boris Groysberg & Robin Abrahams, "Manage your Work, Manage your Life." https://hbr.org/2014/03/manage-your-work-manage-your-life
• Blaise Pascal, Pensees" p.75 (New York, Penguin Books. 1966) https://itsjustme.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/the-correct-quote-of-blaise-pascal/
• Scripture reference: Bible: Matthew 16:26 http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-26.htm
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