Productivity – Achiever vs Abider

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am an achiever. I love lists because, at the end of the day, it feels good to see all the cross marks representative of the things I managed to achieve that day. Sometimes, if I do something that was not originally on my list, I add it there, just so I can cross it off. Achiever. That was a huge part of my identity which in my defence, I didn’t just place on myself. Even to those closest to me, I was affectionately called: superwoman, high achiever, doer and many other terms that quite honestly fed my confidence and boosted me to do more and more of what got me those compliments in the first place.

Digging around the foundation of our identity to see if there are any cracks, I can now say, isn’t a one-and-done thing. Throughout our walk with the Lord, He will keep refining us if we let Him. Having an achiever disposition is not a wrong or bad thing. I celebrate it because this is in fact how God wired me, and you if you can relate. He did so for His glory and His purpose. Unfortunately, because of sin, everything is corrupted, and there comes a time in our journey with God where, one by one, He has to redeem those parts of us to more accurately reflect Himself.

I was recently reading through a past journal looking for a specific entry. As I perused through I came across these lines I had written concerning this very topic:

“I am in a slowed down, stripped down season of learning to stride with the Lord rather than strive for results. Abide, rather than achieve. I am in a season of re-defining myself from being an achiever to being an abider.” July 2021

It’s interesting to read my thoughts then and compare them with my mindset and heart posture now. I won’t say it’s been easy or that sometimes reverting to my default settings doesn’t seem more natural; I will say that I am indeed a different person at the very core of me, not because of me, but because of Him who loves me.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” ~John 15:4-6 (NKJV)

Studying this passage of scripture has gone hand in hand with my recent evolution in this specific area. Obviously, these verses apply to us all, type A personality or not, and so I would like to share a few thoughts on this and how it applies to our productivity.

Abiding in Jesus refers to intimacy and relationship. A natural deferring to Him based on love and trust. I’ve realised that many Christians pigeonhole their lives and isolate certain sections of their world from God. Especially their work. As you sit at your desk each morning, planning out your tasks for the day, do you defer to the Lord? Do you ask the Holy Spirit which items should be prioritised and for His help in getting them done? When we position ourselves for true intimacy to be developed between us and God, abiding becomes progressively more natural. Even in the thick of things, you will find yourself reaching out to God and asking for His opinion or forgiveness over different things. When you are in achiever mode your blinders are on. All you see are the results, and it is almost impossible to truly defer to God or allow Him to guide you because taking that time may threaten the accomplishment of the task at hand.

Abiding bears fruit while achieving produces results. A result is a thing that is caused or produced by something else. When we are in achiever mode, we are constantly doing something so that we can produce the thing we want. In this illustration, Jesus gives, He is the vine, not us. Branches don’t have to strain to produce fruit. For as long as they stay connected to the vine, the fruit will come. Achievers have to do all the work striving and straining to get that result, and once it is obtained another goal swiftly takes its place, most times leaving no room to even celebrate the accomplishment. When we abide in Christ, we follow His lead, we rely on His grace and we submit to His direction, in everything, daily productivity included.

The achievers withering and burning. To wither means to dry, to lose vitality, force or freshness. To burn is to destroy, damage or injure by heat or fire. As a recovering achiever, I will confess that I have experienced withering and burning in different areas of my life. In my efforts to do all the things for seemingly all the right reasons, I experienced a loss of myself, a loss of my place in my relationship with God, a loss of my joy in Him and found myself always complaining about the very things I was busting my butt to get done. The vitality was gone, the energised force from God was missing and I did feel dry and empty despite all my hard work and targets met. A withering that then snowballs into a burn. The burn shows up as possible burnout, burned bridges caused by frustration, unnecessary arguments, a lack of time to invest in relationships, and finally burned opportunities. When we are in achiever mode, we miss out on opportunities God strategically has for us.

If you are like me and have experienced this tug-of-war between being an achiever and obeying the commandment of Christ for you to abide in Him, be encouraged. It is never too late to repent and get back to Him. You are never too far gone to place your habits and settings at His feet and ask Him to help renew your mind and restore His factory settings. He is gracious and merciful enough to do it, I am living testimony of this fact.

How does one still stay on track with the high demands of work and home or school targets and tasks at hand, as well as goals and aspirations? How do we healthily access if we have accomplished what we set out to do for that day or week? Firstly, the task setting must be realistic. Rather than having a list of fifteen things, why not have five and narrow down the top three from those five? At the end of each day, access your progress against your list of five and then three. In the mix of this, be prepared to be interrupted. Interruptions come from different angles; your supervisor bringing in a new task more urgent than everything else, a client’s complaint that may need immediate attention, a sick child or a funeral. The list is endless. All in all, access your progress objectively and celebrate small wins. Develop the habit of creating small wins just so you can celebrate them. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the eyes to see these wins.

I hope this has encouraged and enlightened you. I pray that as you take steps to stay in union with God, He will meet you with grace and truth to make the necessary adjustments for lasting change which will produce lasting fruit.

The LORD replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, (insert your name here) and I will give you rest, everything will be fine for you.” ~ Exodus 33:14 (NLT)