Unequally Yoked
Much to my surprise, a friend recently left a well respected regional advertising agency where he was a principal for several years. From the outside, everything seemed to be going fine. Why I wondered, would he want to leave? He told me at lunch one day he was "unequally yoked." For those unfamiliar with the term, "unequally yoked" is an agricultural reference to two different animals (like a donkey and an ox) yoked together to pull a load or plough a field. When there are different animals hitched together, the yoke weighs heavily on one animal while choking the other. Or the animal with the longer stride drags the other along by the neck. This is a painful and unproductive situation for all. Equally yoking two animals of the same weight, size and type enables them to pull smoothly and help each other accomplish the work. I've heard "unequally yoked" applied many times in a marriage relationship, but never thought about it in a professional one. I believe a lot of us are unequally yoked with our work. Our passion is hitched up to a client, agency, company, philosophy or pattern of thinking that is essentially choking the life out of us. You may have started pulling the load together equally, but it's obvious now that you can't breath. You know your unequally yoked when:
+ You find yourself doing a lot of good work, but nothing truly great or inspiring.
+ You go to work, but the work your doing is empty and devoid of meaning for you.
+ You no longer agree philosophically with where your company/organization is headed.
+ You find yourself muttering phrases to others like, "It pays the bills," "Feeds the family" and "Have to earn a living".
+ You say to yourself, "I just don't think I can do one more ____ (annual report, website, brochure, whatever)"
+ You come to the realization that you're an ox and they're a donkey.
+ There is little meaningful connection between your "work life" and the rest of your life.
+ Your attempts to address your differences have fallen on deaf ears or are irresolvable.
+ What you do outside of work is more meaningful than what you do at work.
When you realize you're unequally yoked, what do you do? I think you must honestly ask yourself, "Is this where God wants me to be right now?" And then comes the hard part—waiting for the answer. And there will be one if you're willing to listen and wait. After 10 years in the military, I slowly realized that I was unequally yoked. My views about the mission and purpose of the military had changed so significantly, that it became difficult for me to carry out my work with a clear conscience. My family and I waited for a year and a half wondering what we should do. In the last few weeks before I was to complete my term of service and be discharged, God led us to a completely new place that combined all of our hidden passions into a single work/home environment. After some enlightening but difficult years, I realized I was again unequally yoked. So, I'm waiting again for a new connection between passion, purpose and profession.
B L A N K is a step in that direction.
What about you?
+ You find yourself doing a lot of good work, but nothing truly great or inspiring.
+ You go to work, but the work your doing is empty and devoid of meaning for you.
+ You no longer agree philosophically with where your company/organization is headed.
+ You find yourself muttering phrases to others like, "It pays the bills," "Feeds the family" and "Have to earn a living".
+ You say to yourself, "I just don't think I can do one more ____ (annual report, website, brochure, whatever)"
+ You come to the realization that you're an ox and they're a donkey.
+ There is little meaningful connection between your "work life" and the rest of your life.
+ Your attempts to address your differences have fallen on deaf ears or are irresolvable.
+ What you do outside of work is more meaningful than what you do at work.
When you realize you're unequally yoked, what do you do? I think you must honestly ask yourself, "Is this where God wants me to be right now?" And then comes the hard part—waiting for the answer. And there will be one if you're willing to listen and wait. After 10 years in the military, I slowly realized that I was unequally yoked. My views about the mission and purpose of the military had changed so significantly, that it became difficult for me to carry out my work with a clear conscience. My family and I waited for a year and a half wondering what we should do. In the last few weeks before I was to complete my term of service and be discharged, God led us to a completely new place that combined all of our hidden passions into a single work/home environment. After some enlightening but difficult years, I realized I was again unequally yoked. So, I'm waiting again for a new connection between passion, purpose and profession.
B L A N K is a step in that direction.
What about you?
posted by fivemcclungs at 10:50 AM
3 Comments:
Here's hoping that your horses run free and the pastures are green...
On the second thought: may all your mules be returning from the Sierra Madre...with no bandits. LOL
More than a half year later I've run into a fellow at the design firm my friend mentioned in the above article worked at. I asked him how things were going. He's says that virtually the entire creative department left the company. When the CEO called the creatives together and told them they were doing too high a quality of work and they needed to churn out a greater quantity of lower quality work; everyone bolted. Wow.
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