self-abnegating
Led by a desire for self-abnegation, he became a monk.
If you have in mind a career in politics, then maybe there are limits to self-abnegation.
Their self-abnegation has always had a whiff of hypocrisy about it.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Refusing & rejecting
abjuration
abjure
abnegate
abnegation
bar
bat something/someone away
decline
disavow
gainsay
oppositional
opt
opt out
pass on
pass something up
punt on something
rebel
refuse
sb wouldn't touch something/someone with a bargepole/barge poleidiom
tear
would not do something for all the tea in Chinaidiom