Besetting Sins

The dream of personal and professional betterment is no new thing. The ancients have much to teach on the subject, and human nature hasn’t changed. Take, for example, the biblical admonition, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Now let me save readers the trouble of telling me I’ve cherry-picked from a much more extensive and beautiful theological treatise. My intention here is not to preach, but to hold up this poignant phrase as a key to the success of any long-term endeavour. And while I’m cherry-picking, let me leave the “patience” part for your personal study, and focus on the admonition to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us”, because those few words speak volumes to me personally about why so many of my noblest dreams and heroic projects end up in a sorry pile of dust. They resonate with me, and perhaps they do with you, too.

I don’t think the author meant “weight” or “sin” in any theological sense, but more in the generic sense of impediment. Whether such weight and besetting sin be heinous or mundane, substance abuse or obsessive desk-clearing, it has the same effect. If I have a project to complete, it doesn’t matter whether I am blind drunk or rabbit-trailing the internet, the result remains a project incomplete and a promise not kept.

So with the authority of Holy Scriptures in my corner, let me propose that the single greatest reason why we fail to achieve our potential, or even the quotidian, is that we have these “weights” and “besetting sins” which seize us by the ankles as all the other runners are breaking into lead positions.

I will be the first to admit that the surest reason why my New Year’s Resolutions, Thirty-Day Campaigns, and Strategic Plans end up in the trash bin is that one or more “weights” or “besetting sins” killed them, just as surely as if they had used an AK47. Perhaps you lead a loftier and more noble life than I, but that’s my story.

The problem with weights and besetting sins is that they are comfortable, ingrained, and integral to the contours of our lives. They are as natural as breathing. As such, they invariably are the path of least resistance. We don’t notice as they corrode our sense of self-worth and rob us of the joy of achievement and like a thief in the night, rob us of our most precious and irreplaceable asset, time.

So for me, at least, the prerequisite for goal-setting and strategic planning is to take into account my various “weights and besetting sins” right at the outset. Being aware of these, and strategizing against them, is the surest way I know for my dreams to have a faint chance of realization.

And thus endeth the lesson.