Lets take an age old look at one of my favorite Bible verses: "Those who are humbled are exalted…" Matthew 23:12
Yes, I am a person of faith, yes... and absolutely no shame in sharing this as it’s a significant piece of who I am. However, I’m not writing to you today about that. I am writing about the concept of humility and how I believe it can absolutely shift your work force, your personal realm of thinking, thought processes and your people to think smaller but with a bigger picture in mind. Your probably thinking what does this Ryan kid have anything to say about humility and the concepts behind it, why should this input be valid for an organization, + what does he know as he is just a 23 year-old-guy? Let me be clear, I’m not talking solely on taking the spotlight-off-yourself-type-humility that many of us are accustomed to. I’m talking about the lens of humble thinking. Humility not only changes you and how you see yourself (how you’re not bigger and better than the person ‘above’ or ‘below’ you) but it absolutely has influence over the way you think. I’m gonna’ argue that humility helps you SEE details and care for them while having an overarching VISION.
First off, people always want to do the big and 'sexy' thing that impacts a lot of people and people want to do something of significance with their life (I know I do). Yet, we have to think small before big. We have to train our minds to understand how things began... We have to remind ourselves that every big company that 'made it' was started from humble beginnings. We have to understand that before a tree becomes something that bears large amounts of fruit, it took a humble seed being planted in the ground to one day yield fruit. However, the seed has to die before it becomes a tiny plant. Before it becomes a tree bearing large amounts of fruit, it has to withstand times and seasons of pruning. I’m talking about having a seed-like-mindset but having a big-picture tree-harvest-fruit view. Amazon was started in HUMBLE beginnings (Mr. Bezos operated his computer off a door-like-desk) before the systematic process of hard work and effort took over to EXALT Amazon into a greater business behemoth. Apple was started in a garage!
Moreover, I can't tell you how many people want a six pack of abs and an awesome lookin' body but they don't want put in the humble work of lifting SMALL weights and performing small amounts of reps before they can hit higher weights. They always look at the destination and the end-goal and disregard the details. I know I am guilty of this and I'm reminded of years ago of wanting to grab the heavier weights to prove to everyone that I can really weight lift, even though I was really just a beginner. So, I grabbed the heavier weights because I wanted to get to the destination of larger muscles and weight lifting capacity without caring for the detailed work of actually getting there. Because I did that, my form became corrupted. I had cared more about destination then about the process to get there. I would lift with my whole body instead of strictly that specific muscle group that I intended to target my exercise on in the first place. Like, we want to scale Mt. Everest but we don't want to go through the process of conditioning and character development to get us there, it seems.
So, to achieve more... you have to see the bigger picture, right? Hm.
All good achievements in life involve scaling a metaphorical, humble mountain.
I once watched a TEDX talk about this guy who talked about achieving things and he shared with the audience how he would break things down to small pieces instead of seeing the overarching goal. Instead of scaling a mountain, he would scale parts of it and train himself to reach the zenith bit by bit. He shared how he read 50+ books in a year and he looked at it HUMBLY by just reading ONE book, even breaking it down to reading just a few chapters EVERY DAY. Honestly, when I looked at the amount of work I've had to do this summer it was overwhelming... the idea of studying for the CPA exam 25-30 hours a week, taking 16 credit hours in one summer and still try and maintain social balance has been a lot. But, it hasn't looked so bad as I surpassed a difficult tax class with flying colors and took things day by day. So, here's the thing about a mountain... that it's always tallest and steepest from the bottom. Yet, when you start scaling up that mountain bit by bit and chopping away at your goal to reach the zenith... all of a sudden that mountain doesn't look so bad. Let's now look at this from the lens of statistics. Remember ever hearing or seeing a significant problem occurring in the world such as world hunger or starving children and observing a statistic of say 50,000 people in XYZ country showing they're starving and near death and being asked to donate $ to the problem? Your mind probably gasps at this problem and you think its probably too pervasive to actually solve through your donation. However, when the story and statistic is 'humbled' and becomes portrayed as a family with names and a personal story, you actually become more likely to donate than if you saw the 50k + statistic.
It’s always the process along the way UP the mountain that humbles you. When people get to a level of success they don’t point to the platform, they point to the people or influence that propelled them to where they’re at. Here’s the thing about humility in you and your organization. That it is a choice. That you can humble yourself and work to infuse humility in your work place. However, you can be humble for a moment but still be constantly beaming with pride later on. Pride is the enemy of humility and pride will make you and your organization THINK you’re a finished product of the process, when really you are not. You and your organization still have room for growth and the product/fruit of your organization still has room for significant tweaking and pruning. Many organizations and people stop reaching a level of growth they had the capacity for because they got complacent or prideful.
Lastly, the thing about humility, is that people ALWAYS exalt the end result and not what you did behind the scenes, where those nitty gritty details and character like grit, perseverance, and faithfulness remained unseen from the public eye. It was in the process that your character and organizational story were crafted and cultivated. It was those roots that fueled the story and the fight. It was those humble beginnings that brought upon your greatness and your organization's exaltation that society looks upon through the 'lens' of greatness.
This is where our mind/organizational thought has been transformed to steward ALL the small things well so the big picture is accomplished.
Call to action? You bet ('lol'). I encourage us to start valuing every little thing, every organizational habit, every routine, every system, and TREATING it with significance. It all adds oil to the machine, flame to the fire, and the habits and small details along the way can impact our vision and how far we go.
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