Learning Biblical Productivity From Ants 🐜
3 Lessons that Ants teach us🐜
As soon as you hear the word ‘productivity’, whose name comes to your mind? For me, it is Tim Ferriss and Ali Abdaal. These days, there are many ‘productivity gurus’. While the majority of them might have something thought-provoking and practical to say, not every piece of advice that they share will be biblical. So, let’s turn to the Bible and see what it has to offer.
Scripture often reveals that God has taught many wise lessons to the creation, from which we can, in turn, learn as well. This passage is an interesting one.
Proverbs 6:6-8: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”
We can learn a lot from an ant, so let’s dig into it.
1. The Ant’s Self-Motivation
In life, starting from our childhood, we have been trained a lot. Whether it be in class or extra-curricular activities. Once we graduate and enter into the corporate world or begin our job, we have a boss who assigns us work and oversees us. This is the norm of life.
While it is good to have a supervisor for accountability purposes, the truth is that we will not always have someone who will motivate us at all times. And we tend to become lazy, especially at times when we don’t have anyone to be accountable to. That’s when productivity steps in.
Ants don’t need anyone to supervise them. They work on their own. They know what they want, and they work for it day and night. I’ve never seen an ant wasting time unnecessarily. They are self-disciplined and self-motivated. They take personal responsibility very seriously.
Are you self-motivated? Are you self-disciplined?
2. The Ant’s Planning and Preparation
It has been famously said by Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Planning and Preparation become crucial if you want to be productive. Ants have, probably, mastered it. They store provisions in summer and gather food at harvest.
You need to plan your schedule beforehand. You cannot start your day at 10 in the morning and expect to be productive all day long, by just going with the flow. You should, instead, plan your tomorrow by today itself so that you are relying less on your mood and more on your schedule.
Do you plan your day beforehand? How minutely do you prepare and plan for the entire day?
3. The Ant’s Diligence and Hard Work
In today’s world, everyone wants to work ‘smart’, and avoid hard work. With that being said, I’m not against ‘smart’ work. However, let that not become the ideal; let it not become a shortcut.
All who have worked hard have eventually grown in their life. Writers, for instance, who choose to write instead of blindly using AI will learn more about their craft. This is true for any skill. To master a skill, one needs to put in the hard work. As it is famously said, “Rome was not built in a day.”
Ants know this, and they are known for their diligence and tireless work ethic. They work regardless of the season. And they are a great challenge and an example set before us to learn from.
Do you work hard enough? Do you put in all of your efforts?
It’s surprising how such a tiny insect can teach us such huge lessons! May the Lord help us to learn more from His creation and may we be productive in all the aspects of our lives. God bless you.