Are you trying to keep up with the Jones’s? So much of what fuels our successes in life is comparing ourselves to others. We start climbing our own ladder of success, but very soon we find ourselves looking sideways to compare ourselves with others around us who are ascending their own success ladders. We buy a house we can barely afford because someone at work has five bedrooms, and we think we should have the same. We buy a car on hire purchase because our friend is driving around in a sports car that makes us jealous. We push our kids to achieve success in sports or dance or drama because the neighbours’ children are getting attention for the extra-curricular activities they do each weekend.
We soon discover that we can feel quite content with our lives until we find someone our age who has gone further, or earns more than we do, or has achieved something we have not.
Welcome along to the Battle Drill Daily Devotional. This week we are exploring better ways to measure a good life. Yesterday, we focused on how easy it is to look at something we’ve achieved and forget how many people, opportunities, and circumstances have helped us get there.
Today, we are thinking about how futile comparison is in helping us achieve anything in life.
In Ecclesiastes 4:4, the wisdom writer says:
“Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.”
That observation seems astonishingly modern to me. How often have I worked hard simply because I wanted to stay ahead of everyone else? Today’s workaholics are often driven by envy and greed. But this focus is foolish and irresponsible.
Firstly, most of us discover there are two directions you can travel on a ladder: up or down. And most of us don’t progress steadily upwards. Our journey is often made up of two steps up and one down. But whilst the world will celebrate you when you’re going up, it often looks with scorn and disgust when you find yourself heading down.
And secondly, the problem with the ladder of success is that there’s no end to it. There are times in our lives when we hope to glimpse the top of our ladder, or to see enough to be able to view how far we have left to go. But the ladder just keeps on going higher and higher until it vanishes into the mist above our heads.
So, how can we better measure our success?
Ron Schaich co-founded the American company Panera Bread, and spent around two decades building it into a business that he sold in 2017 for $7.5 billion. He credits his success to a simple practice. Every year he carries out a “pre-mortem” in which he imagines looking back from the end of his life and asks what will actually have mattered. He then works backwards towards the present rather than letting other people’s achievements set his direction.
What a great idea! What would that look like for you? Looking at success this way replaces sideway comparison with a deeper question: what sort of life do I actually want to have lived? And how can I bring glory to God in all that I do and who I am becoming?
Maybe you could carry out one of these pre-mortems today? There’s a journaling space in our Battle Drill Daily Devotional app where you could map it out.
As you think about the sort of life you want to have lived, and the ways in which you could bring glory to God, take the time to notice one borrowed measure of success you regularly use. It might be your salary. It could be your job title. It could be the influence you have on those around you. On social media, it might be the number of view you have. Replace it with one simple measure of faithfulness that is yours instead.
And in the comments, why not list a measure of success that you are going to try and care less about.
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father. In our heart of hearts we know just how futile comparison is. Ultimately, it never brings us lasting happiness. So, we ask you to free us from our envy and greed, and the sometimes constant desire to keep one step ahead of everyone else. Instead, help us to be faithful each day in simply bringing you glory in all that we do, and all you are shaping us to be. Amen.
Come back tomorrow for day three of our series - The Work Nobody Applauds Still Matters – as we recognise that a useful life might matter more than an impressive one.
In the meantime, God bless you today.