Is your life marked by success or significance?
Several years ago, I began following various publishing blogs in
preparation to eventually release my own book. One of the first things I
learned was the importance of waiting until I had 1000+ subscribers before
pitching my manuscript to literary agents.
Over the last year, I officially finished writing my manuscript.
Having achieved the necessary number of subscribers laid out in the
blogosphere, I felt confident and ready to approach agents with my book
proposal.
The responses soon arrived in my inbox:
“We
only represent public figures.”
“Your
platform is too small.”
“We
are not interested.”
Each time I received a deflating rejection, I sighed in
frustration and quickly closed out of my email.
Questions began to plague my mind:
Should I have been putting more effort into accumulating readers,
rather than merely letting them find me organically?
Is what I have written not as important or relevant as I thought?
My confidence level threatened to plummet as the temptation arose
to attach my self-worth to the words of an email from a complete stranger.
Why does this matter?
The way we choose to measure success ultimately dictates how we will view our accomplishments.
As an aspiring author, I was unable to disassociate how I felt about myself and my work from the decisions of an industry professional who knew nothing about me.
I was in desperate need of a mindset shift.
Choosing a metric to define success
How can success be defined? What will my measuring stick be?
Will my book be measured by the number of copies sold or positive reviews?
When it comes to physical therapy, am I measured by the amount of
time I put in? How much new movement I regain?
Is my vocational success determined solely by the number of
dollars I earn? How impressive my title is?
Can you relate?
Do you find yourself falling into a similar trap of looking to
titles, numbers, or status to validate your worth?
A better way to measure ourselves
In his book, Go Small, Craig Gross makes the case that God doesn’t care about our size, status, or success. This has been a message I have desperately needed to be reminded of time and time again.
Success is not determined by numbers. Nor is it determined by society, the opinions of others around us, or how our accomplishments stack up to the accomplishments of our peers.
Success is ultimately determined by our obedience to God.
Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah were
assigned with the task of calling the nation of Israel back towards God. All
three devoted their lives to this task yet ended up dying without seeing much
change.
Were they successful? Absolutely. They obeyed the task given to
them by God.
Jesus spoke to thousands, healed the masses, raised the dead, and
accomplished more in three years of public ministry than anyone in the history
of the world. Yet, he spent most of his time and energy building into just 12 men.
Those men went on to change the world.
Moving from success to significance
Basing my success on the size of my audience will only keep me in
chains. Looking to Jesus’ example, I have slowly begun to understand how
irrelevant the numbers are.
When I walk in obedience, whether it be through writing or simply
engaging in conversation with a friend, I find the true purpose God has for me
right where I am. This allows me to move my focus from success to significance.
As for my book? Obedience looks like putting my best efforts into
writing, revising, and marketing the book. It’s honoring God with my time, my
effort, and the content I produce.
Rather than focusing merely on sales, reviews, or subscribers, my mindset needs to be foremost on significance…even if that means my writing is helpful to just one reader.
As long as I stay focused on putting to paper what I feel called
to write, I can deem the project a success.
Maybe God has not designed me to find satisfaction in status,
size, or our worldly definition of success. In fact, it seems to me he could
not care less about those things.
Maybe bigger isn’t always better.
Maybe it’s about something deeper.
Maybe going small has been the secret all along.
What about you? Do you wrestle with determining what counts as significance?
––
Click here to stay in the loop for the next post and receive the free guide The Path to Perseverance: 6 Ways to Stay Strong in a Difficult Season.
Ryan,
Such a good reminder and excellent blog.
When I saw your measuring stick and question of a measured success…I immediately had God’s “plumbline” come to mind! (Amos 7:7-9)
Jesus is our plumb line!
You are 100% correct that we were not designed
for that type of “success.”
If left to our flesh, we distort everything, don’t we?!
SO thankful you and I were rescued from our flesh by our precious Shepherd, who came in the flesh! He knows us by name…and our only “success” is drawing closer and abiding in Him until He brings us home!
I’m 62 and STILL trying to understand. But it gets clearer and clearer. :))
I looked up the root meaning of success…thought I’d share!
Comes from 16th century Latin word “succedere” which means “come close after.”
So it seems very clear, that Jesus lovingly asks His sheep to follow Him and abide. Stay close.
These things came with each loss in my life. I drew closer to Him after each devastating blow. The realization that He would never leave me…and always provides peace.
That is the “success” Jesus brings. His peace!
God bless!
Sarah
Thanks for sharing that Sarah… And teaching me some Latin as well! Good point to remember
Thank you so much for sharing this insight! When I went on disability I realized that “who I was” was defined by my occupation, which I no longer had, and it kind of devolved from there. I still struggle with not feeling “useful” enough, but people around me point out that God is using me all the time. It still feels like never enough, but you’re absolutely right, God is asking me to do my best in a way that honors him and to create disciples, Not meet worldly definitions of success.
Wow, Ryan! What an amazing and insightful writing! Like me….I believe thousands of others need to see this message. I missed it until now as your email was lost between many other emails. This wouldn’t be an impactful if not told by you. Go SMALL! Mike
Hi Ryan,
You nailed it with these comments. We have to just keep reminding ourselves–that it’s the faithfulness, not the fruit, that God is interested in.
Thanks so much. Donna
Faithfulness prioritized over fruit… And I believe the fruit will follow, even if it may not look like we expected it to
Hello Ryan, my name is Dave (I’m in the UK), great to connect with you …someone who has faith and determination and acknowldges God’s love the way you do. After 25 years and 8 books (spirituality/ self-help/personal transformation (I’ve only just got a website bk up and running after many years. EVERYTHING you mention was like it was written for me! The same ugly self doubts over what is deemed success by peers etc are just one aspect of self destructive thoughts. I’m non techy and even recently wanted to pick up a hammer and smash the laptop to bits. Oops halo dropped ha ha. I find it very difficult to write… do ‘marketing’.. social media.. etc etc … maintain website … and try to put great content out too, the list goes on! But i always recall a letter i received in the 90s how a man had contemplated suicide but my first book helped to change his life around. Yes, id love 1000s of subscribers and be a full time author but this so called striving for success can be a real obstacle taking us away from what we were called to do. Your post is a reminder of our truth and passion so am very grateful for reading your words Ryan. I am wishing you the very best… and am sure you will become a great role model to help many people who feel their disability (no matter great or small) can prevent them achieving their dreams. Your positivity is amazing with what you have gone through. Nb.It would be fab if you subscribe at my site too, as I always try to send out uplifting pictures, words and a sunday blog post to help uplift hearts and minds. I will try to keep you inspired too! PS. There’s some freebies emailed out on subscription btw too. Keep strong… keep shinning…and we must both keep up the good Lords work… and hey, I might even have to take my socks off to count the number of my subscribers one day ha ha! Peace and joy to you and your family. Happy thanksgiving too. DAVE (AFY)
David, Great to get your message from across the pond.
It sounds like your books are impacting people tremendously all the way back to that letter you received in the 90s.
I will definitely check out your site! Thanks for sharing that.