There Are No Rewards for Being Meek
Despite what The Bible may tell you
Read time: 7 minutes
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:5
What does it mean to be “meek”
It might help to start with a definition before we get into the meat of this piece. Meek is defined as “quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive.” After some quick research, The Bible seems to imply that those who forego worldly power will be rewarded in the kingdom of heaven. This has been interpreted to mean that those who give up the chase of status, wealth, and other shallow ambitions shall experience everlasting life (in the Christian sense). While there may be good lessons in this particular bible verse, “Thou shall not worship false idols,” and all that, I think there is something virtuous about throwing meekness to the wayside and being bold and forthright in what you want out of your time here on Earth.
Depending on your flavor of Religion or Spirituality, you may or may not believe in an afterlife. Those who do believe think that if they live a certain way, they will experience an eternity of bliss. Others (especially those pesky millennials and gen z kids) don’t believe in an afterlife in any sense. When you die it goes lights out and you go back to wherever you were during the Rennaissance. The latter group (myself included) believes that this short sub-100-year time slot that we get on earth is all we get. Even if you do believe in an afterlife, there is a universal idea that life on earth is sacred and inherently valuable. Meaning it is valuable for its own sake, outside of anything that comes after.
With that idea of sacredness in mind, it would be a waste to spend the time you do have here living in a certain way in hopes that you are rewarded in eternity or because you think it virtuous to be sub-servant to outside influences. Those outside influences could be The Bible, The Torah, or anyone who isn’t you who has thoughts on how you should be living your life. Returning to the title of the article, to be meek in the world, to not ask and go for what you want, to let life happen to you, is a devastating waste of potential. Not only does it limit what you could see/ accomplish/ experience in your lifetime, but more likely than not in the process you will deprive the world of your unique blend of skills and desires. If you follow someone else’s path you remove the potential of a unique perspective that this world desperately needs. No matter if that path is one laid out by Religion, your parents, or Tony Robbins.
Note: I am not for or against organized religion. What I am against is people deferring their life plan to another entity without doing the hard work of determining if it is truly right for them.
“Meek” means the safe route
The safe route is and always has been an enticing option. There are benefits to having a stable job, a conservative approach, and a perspective that dictates that you will not be the one rocking the boat. It’s much easier to scoop up someone else’s idea of what a good life looks like and model that than it is to do the introspection required to figure it out yourself and the hard work of putting those realizations into practice. (I recognize the irony of me writing that in a blog in which I spew my thoughts on a good life but I’m talking principles here, not specific suggestions). You’d be hard pressed to name someone who lived a full life after taking someone else’s vision for what would be good for them and adopting it as a personal philosophy. The hard questions, the ones without concrete answers, are the ones worth taking the time to answer for yourself.
When you take the time to figure out what you want in your career, your relationships, and how you want to spend your time, you will inevitably be saying no to many others’ opinions of how you should be spending your life. This will turn off a lot of people. Some may even take it personally. To say that you don’t think what they are doing is the best way to live your one life will offend those who have strong opinions on what is “Right.” That’s fine. Let them get angry. Let them write you off as naive, or impractical, or clueless. As Dr. Suess is thought to have said, “Those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”
You get one of these roller coaster rides, so say screw it to being meek, submissive, easily imposed on, and get on doing what you want to be doing with your time.
How does one adopt this mindset?
There really aren’t any awards for meekness. There are awards for humility and there are awards for self-awareness. Those who are meek may inherit the earth according to the bible, but in the real world, if you want something out of this life, then you are going to have to go after it. Being meek just won’t cut it. So what do you do about that? How do you put this mindset into practice?
For me, that means a couple of things. I’ve spent a lot of time journaling this summer, far too much as it turns out. I’ve taken what can be a productive practice and turned it into another outlet for my neurosis and overthinking. That’s not great. In the process I’ve become submissive to my own negative thought patterns. Which is arguable worse than becoming sub-servant to an outside influence. There are plenty of things that I want to improve about myself but instead of figuring out what those are and working on them, I’ve been spinning my wheels and thinking myself in circles. You have to be self-aware to figure out what you want, but there are diminishing returns to constant introspection. You have to take the time to answer the hard, ambiguous questions for yourself but then when you’ve thought them through, you need to go LIVE your life. If you spend all your time thinking, like I’ve been prone to recently, you’ll never get out of your head for long enough to actually make the changes you desire.
The way I’m putting this into practice is by first doing the required work to understand my perspective and knowing what will be fulfilling for me. In whatever area I’m considering. Whether it be professional or personal or otherwise. Then, actually going and doing it and not being so judgemental on how much progress I have yet to make. Instead of trying to control and massage and analyze every little thing that you want to change, and letting that fear and insecurity drive your behavior, I’ve taken to saying, “Let it fly.” Think it through and then go do it and trust that the people who matter in your life are going to be there to support you throughout your journey. Trust that you know yourself best and that you don’t need to import and idea of what you should be doing with your life.
Practice consciously, and perform intuitively. Do the work to figure out your directional heading with your mind, then put that pesky neurosis machine aside and go chase whatever lead you’re following.
Exhibit A:
I have some friends who are uber successful in the conventional sense, in that they have great white-collar jobs that pull in tons of money but that don’t necessarily fulfill them. In their free time, these fellas have learned how to DJ and have started playing paid gigs. That’s not something your parents would likely ever recommend. Trying to pivot from the corporate world to DJing as a way to make money isn’t exactly the most certain path to financial stability, but they are going for it anyway. The rational of us may think, “Well, that’s only ever going to be a side hustle and they’ll probably drop that dream soon.” But that hasn’t been what I’ve witnessed. These people have dedicated themselves to something they truly care about and have seen (hopefully) the full support of their friends. They are doing something bold, and while maybe not unique, I think admirable. It takes guts to throw yourself into something earnestly and put out a piece of yourself into your true dream. That’s a beautiful thing and when I think about the type of life I want to live, it’s one with that kind of chutzpah. I want to be someone who lets it fly and stays authentic to what he knows is best. I’m a work in progress, and as my dad told me, we all are. But the idea that you are submissive to anything that doesn’t come from inside isn’t a belief that I subscribe to. And neither should you.
Forgot about the word "meek." Gonna start using that as a roast now.
This is a supremely westernized view of how to live life, and while I more or less agree with it—and agree for the reasons you put forth—there also unquestionable merits to the long standing, traditional life of accepting a largely predefined role. Recommend Joseph Heinrich’s The WEIRDest People in the World for context on how this is a highly western view. Also arguable that it’s a highly market-centric view.