When Being Successful Is Not a Good Thing
So maybe you've guessed I've struggled with this whole idea of wanting to be more successful, sometimes letting that desire dominate my waking hours from morning 'till night. If you suffer from this affliction, the thing to remember is this: We're not called to be successful; we're called to be holy. Remember, our whole purpose for being here on this earth is to know, love and serve God. That comes first.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't be successful, of course. It's a question of getting your priorities straight. To put it simply, if you spend all your time and energy on being more successful in this world, and you spend little time on your personal sanctity, you priorities are - to put it bluntly - screwed up.
That's one of the reasons we Catholic men develop a morning routine centered on God, not just on getting ready for work. For me, being a morning person, I'm giving the best part of my day to God, right off the bat. So I get up a bit earlier and spend time in prayer, study, meditation, etc. We've talked about all this many times.
Granted, that's a good start. And I must tell you that when I started to develop my morning routine - with the encouragement of a holy priest-confessor - I had to literally carve out time from my "personal development" exercises that I felt compelled to perform each morning. (We talked about this a bit last time.) So it was an interesting experience that kind of came down to dividing the morning between me and God, in a certain sense. Fortunately God won out. As we saw last time, the personal development/success stuff can easily wind up just making you self-centered, even if it does help you become more successful. And going back to what we should already know, we're not called to be successful; we're called to be holy.
Frankly, I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to figure all this out, even with the help of my confessor. And when I say "long" I'm talking years and years. I figure it's because I'm just so self-centered. Thank God for His grace. That's, of course, what finally pulled me - at least in some little way - out of myself and allowed me to spend solid time with Him each morning rather than telling myself how successful I was going to be.
One thing to remember when you begin to spend time with God each morning is to really spend the time with Him and not just kind of "keep score" to make sure you cover every item in that morning routine you develop (perhaps with the help of a good confessor). The keeping score thing was a problem for me for a long time, but I have learned to slow down and pay attention to what I'm doing and saying. It's kind of like when you say the rosary quickly and don't really pay attention to what you're doing. I suppose it's better to say the rosary than not, but what's the point, really, when you're just kind of "mouthing" the words over and over again?
Now, just to be clear here, the point of our discussion is not to say you should not be successful. Our Lord doesn't want us to be poor or miserable in our work. Indeed, our work can and should be a means of increasing our personal sanctity, and we've talked about this many, many times. But we've really got to guard ourselves against the tendency to put personal success first, before our relationship with Our Lord.
Look, just put Him first all the time. It's not complicated. But with all the demands made on our time and attention at work and at home, it does take some discipline. Maybe if you just remember to look at a crucifix from time to time - like the crucifix on your rosary - and take a moment to remember just how much He loves you, and how much He desires you to love Him in return, it will help you to keep Him front and center in your life.
So success isn't a bad thing, it's just not the most important thing.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't be successful, of course. It's a question of getting your priorities straight. To put it simply, if you spend all your time and energy on being more successful in this world, and you spend little time on your personal sanctity, you priorities are - to put it bluntly - screwed up.
That's one of the reasons we Catholic men develop a morning routine centered on God, not just on getting ready for work. For me, being a morning person, I'm giving the best part of my day to God, right off the bat. So I get up a bit earlier and spend time in prayer, study, meditation, etc. We've talked about all this many times.
Granted, that's a good start. And I must tell you that when I started to develop my morning routine - with the encouragement of a holy priest-confessor - I had to literally carve out time from my "personal development" exercises that I felt compelled to perform each morning. (We talked about this a bit last time.) So it was an interesting experience that kind of came down to dividing the morning between me and God, in a certain sense. Fortunately God won out. As we saw last time, the personal development/success stuff can easily wind up just making you self-centered, even if it does help you become more successful. And going back to what we should already know, we're not called to be successful; we're called to be holy.
Frankly, I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to figure all this out, even with the help of my confessor. And when I say "long" I'm talking years and years. I figure it's because I'm just so self-centered. Thank God for His grace. That's, of course, what finally pulled me - at least in some little way - out of myself and allowed me to spend solid time with Him each morning rather than telling myself how successful I was going to be.
One thing to remember when you begin to spend time with God each morning is to really spend the time with Him and not just kind of "keep score" to make sure you cover every item in that morning routine you develop (perhaps with the help of a good confessor). The keeping score thing was a problem for me for a long time, but I have learned to slow down and pay attention to what I'm doing and saying. It's kind of like when you say the rosary quickly and don't really pay attention to what you're doing. I suppose it's better to say the rosary than not, but what's the point, really, when you're just kind of "mouthing" the words over and over again?
Now, just to be clear here, the point of our discussion is not to say you should not be successful. Our Lord doesn't want us to be poor or miserable in our work. Indeed, our work can and should be a means of increasing our personal sanctity, and we've talked about this many, many times. But we've really got to guard ourselves against the tendency to put personal success first, before our relationship with Our Lord.
Look, just put Him first all the time. It's not complicated. But with all the demands made on our time and attention at work and at home, it does take some discipline. Maybe if you just remember to look at a crucifix from time to time - like the crucifix on your rosary - and take a moment to remember just how much He loves you, and how much He desires you to love Him in return, it will help you to keep Him front and center in your life.
So success isn't a bad thing, it's just not the most important thing.
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