day 634: Quiet Ambition

"This should be your ambition; to live a quiet life, minding your own business...

There are many ways to derail a career but at least in legitimate ventures other than a complete lack of integrity, the most consistent way to kill a great career is to be outwardly and overly ambitious. When someones ambition becomes known and the person wears that ambition loudly and openly in full view of others something happens where few if any wants to help make those ambitions come true. Whether it is envy, resentment, or something else, there is not a lot of energy expelled by others to support someone who is overly ambitious. In fact, it is just the opposite. Those who have quiet ambitions and work on the behalf of helping others are the individuals who others want to help and push forward. Yet, we get in our head that we have to be loud, that we have to be boisterous, and that we have to let others always know what we want or we fear that we will get left behind or not recognized. This is likely our pride, our ego, and our insecurities all coming to bear at once. But, it is a killer and the overly ambitious can find themselves lonely and left behind.

Paul tells us that part of our ambition should be to be quiet in our life and keep our business to ourselves. What I hear Paul saying to me is that if my ambition is too strong and I am loud with my life then my ambition is not only wrong, but could be damaging to me and others. This is a strong word for us who are in this fast-moving and always changing world in which we work. The work world tells us to be "out there", to be self-promoting, to Facebook and Tweet ourselves into the lives of others, to publish ourselves, etc. Yet Paul counters this culture with asking us to reset our ambitions and to find a quiet way of living. It is a good challenge for all of us to check our ambitions, check our volume level, and to check our hearts as it relates to what is important in the larger scheme of things. Today, ask yourself where is your ambition and how loud of a life are you living? Too loud today?

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 (New Living Testament)