and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we charged you;
Study to be quiet ...  Phillips' rendition of this as "Make it your ambition to have no ambition" seems appropriate; for what is condemned here is the restless striving for attention, preferment and for what is vaguely called "success."  The quiet, unostentatious and tranquil life of a true Christian is to be preferred against all the more noisy life styles.