What to Do Next: Biblical Wisdom for Your CareerSample

Can I tell you a secret? I’ve often felt like I’m behind in life. I don’t know why. It just seems like I should be farther along by now.

It’s the comparison game many of us play:

I should be married by now. Most of my friends are.
I should have x amount of dollars in the bank by now.
Look at the job they have and look at what I’m doing.

If you find yourself searching for what’s next in your career or feeling unsettled where you are, chances are you’ve been playing the comparison game lately. That’s okay. Comparison is a normal reaction when you feel uncertain. But if I may, I’d like to suggest a healthier way of doing it.

This advice comes from my friend Tim Tassopoulos, president and COO of Chick-fil-A, who has often reminded me, “Don’t compare yourself to others; compare yourself to your potential.”

If that sounds familiar, perhaps that’s because it’s the same lesson Jesus taught when he told the Parable of the Talents. In that story, we meet three servants who are each entrusted with different amounts of money by their Master. When the Master returns after some time away, the servants must account for what they did with the money. Did they invest it and make more? Did they squander it? Did they hide it, perhaps caught in the trap of comparison and anxious about having less than their peers?

The moral of Jesus’ parable is that what you have matters less than what you do with what you have. Or, to put it in career terms, your experience, accolades, skills, and money in the bank matter less than what you do with those resources.

When you play the comparison game, looking around at colleagues and friends who seem farther ahead, what to do next in your career becomes an insurmountable obstacle. Like the servant who received only one talent, you become paralyzed by worry and fear.

When you compare yourself instead to your potential, what to do next becomes clear. It becomes exciting. It becomes a goal worth getting out of bed for every morning. And that kind of action is the first step toward your future because ACTION > WORRY.

In God’s eyes, you are not behind. You can release any worry that you might be. God has given you exactly the past you’ll need for whatever comes next. He wants you to start where you are and take action. We’ll look at how to do that tomorrow.