The wisdom I’m about to share is not explicitly Christian but I’d like to share it because it’s 1) helpful and 2) to apply it in an explicitly Christian way to our discipleship.
Have you ever heard of the “Paradox of Success”?
Greg Mckeown writes about the paradox of success in his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
Mckeown explains magnetic pull of distraction on the most productive people the “paradox of success.” He outlines four phases of the paradox of success as follows:
PHASE 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it enables us to succeed at our endeavour.
PHASE 2: When we have success, we gain a reputation as a "go to" person. We become "good old [insert name]," who is always there when you need him, and we are presented with increased options and opportunities.
PHASE 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, which is actually code for demands upon our time and energies, it leads to diffused efforts. We get spread thinner and thinner.
PHASE 4: We become distracted from what would otherwise be our highest level of contribution. The effect of our success has been to undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place. [1]
Helpful, isn’t it?
We’ve probably all faced this trap in some way and seen others fall into it. As Mckeown summarizes, “Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, the pursuit of success can be a catalyst for failure.”[2]
Mckeown’s book offers tips, tricks, and strategy for doing “Less but Better.” It’s helpful enough to read when you have time.
But I’d like to one-up Mckeown by offering you the privilege and power of prayer!
In prayer we embrace our limitations. Finitude is a feature not a flaw when we faithfully pray.
God has made us finite. I am only one person and I am my children’s only father! The pressures of my own ambition, real needs or people’s expectations can easily suck me down the vortex of the paradox of success.
You’ll likely face this too. How can you remain focused and faithful where God has called you? How can you resist the cultural momentum to argue on Facebook more than you talk to your spouse? How can you succeed by God’s standard of faithfulness where He placed you rather than the world’s measurements of expanding pay, power, influence, or fame?
In prayer we can wrestle with what God says in His Word is our priority and embrace our limited role and strength in His work.
A prayerful person is fully convinced that all they are doing is being done by God through them. The prayerful person is ready to give away responsibilities and glad to watch others take opportunities.
Young people full of ambition can find clear focus by praying through God’s Word. Young families can wrestle with shifting energies in prayer. Busy servants can prioritize what God does in prayer. Older saints can face diminishing energies in prayer.
We all face limitations as we attempt to be faithful to God’s calling. I believe the path to biblical essentialism– doing what God has called you to do– is found in prayer!
[1] Greg Mckeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, (New York: Crown Currency, 2014), 12-13.
[2] Ibid.