Complacency the Lead-up to Failure
It’s human nature to become complacent
It’s easy to shrink into your comfort zone and become lazy, it’s easy to settle into stagnancy and to be satisfied with staying the same. When things in life start going well, there’s no real challenge, and drive fades away because “hey, I’ve achieved all the things I set out to do”. People just float through life, acting out the motions, and stop pushing for more. Instead of accepting new challenges and growing, they surrender to a feeling of numbness and simply live out their day to day routine.
So how can we train ourselves to not be satisfied with the way things proceed?
How can we avoid this lifeless end?
Having a Long Term Outlook ⏳
One main effect of complacency is “losing track” of the future. What I mean is not thinking strategically about the future, but becoming short-sighted due to the comfort of previous successes. When you simply focus on past achievements you become blind to new opportunities and even threats.
Alternatively learning to think long term and widening your scope can provide more motivation and guidance on where you want to go. This means thinking critically about something like: “Where do you want to be in five years?” and working backward to set yearly, and monthly goals to help you achieve that.
When we change our thinking we can help prevent key vulnerabilities and blind spots. Preferably we can acknowledge the blind spots in our lives that require growth and work to addressing them.
Discovering the Drive and Purpose Behind Goals 🧨
Now that you have your goals, a just as important part is understanding why you need to accomplish this goal. Understand your “why” and if you have no reason to do something, why put in the work? Make sure the purpose of this goal and its role in your life is clear so that you will have the drive to carry it out.
I believe you either need to be running from something or running toward something. Think of a lion chasing you, you’d start running. You’d run away like your life depends on it, because it does. Now instead of a lion, the lion is a representation of your worst-case scenario, in other words, what you fear most in life. Without anything chasing you, it’s easy to burn out and stop running. So find what in your life that if you don’t do, will eat you alive?
Because you can’t assume that you have forever to achieve everything you want to do. There are so many uncertainties in life that we choose to ignore, and a huge one is the possibility of death. If you died would you be happy and content with the life you’ve led? This creates a sense of urgency and eliminates complacency with a deadline. So we have to be careful about how we spend our time since we can’t assume that we’ll have more time to live our lives to the fullest, we have to do it now.
Having a Bias Towards Action 🏃♂️
Instead of overthinking and putting things off, the next step is to simply start doing. Running scenarios through your head can be deceiving, and in order to break out of these misconceptions, you need to actually perform the action and gain new data points. For example, you meet someone new and you hesitate. You start overthinking how they are going to react to you approaching them, in lieu of just doing it!
This also applied to goals in life, oftentimes life throws circumstances at you where you need to act fast to improve. With complacency, you end up working at the same constant pace and reducing your growth.
Since the human mind has evolved with more of an emphasis on negative outcomes, the risks often outweigh the potential benefits. It’s important to not overthink and take risks because these risks contain potential opportunities. Complacency reduces the chance of new opportunities, due to the fact that people that are complacent go down the same old roads since these roads have proven good for them in the past.
HUSTLE — Putting in the work 🔨
Procrastination is no longer acceptable, excuses are no longer acceptable you simply need to put in the work and relentlessly pursue your goals. By consistently working towards something daily, you prevent the onset of complacency.
You can no longer put things off till tomorrow and start taking your own initiative to accomplish the goal. The more you work at a goal, the more invested in the goal you become. By putting in the effort you start getting tangible results that motivate more progress.
Often times there will be barriers and obstacles that test your determination. Being relentless and persistent in the pursuit of your best-case scenario is crucial. This means figuring things out, using new perspectives, and being resourceful by leveraging things to your advantage. With hustling, there is only learning or success, giving up is admitting defeat.
Appreciation and Having Gratitude 🙏
This might sound counter-intuitive, as people commonly assume that if you’re more grateful you become less motivated to change or improve in life. However, it’s actually the opposite. Gratitude leads to a desire to do more, and a purpose in life driving away complacency. One study found that simply keeping a gratitude journal and practicing gratitude daily helped a 20% increase in progress toward goals. I think this is tied to how an appreciation of your own life motivates a more “helpful” or giving mindset, to give others what you appreciate receiving yourself.
As cringy as it sounds, in order to get out of a rut you need to start with believing that your best life starts at this moment. Appreciate your life and make the most of it, otherwise, you might regret not living to your full potential when it’s over. Instead of wanting a better life start appreciating the one you have right now (you’d probably take both of them for granted either way).
Of course, I am just as guilty of taking things for granted (perhaps more than anyone of you, so I’m really not in a position to preach…whoops)
Key Takeaways 📌
- Long Term Outlook — Where do you want to be? What is needed to get you there?
- Finding Drive and Purpose — Understand your “why”, have a strong reason for your goals!
- Bias to Action — Just start doing it, don’t overthink risks!
- Hustling — Relentlessly pursue your goals, and if things are not working figure it out!
- Having Appreciation — Appreciate your life, so you don’t regret it when it’s over. This also means making the most of it!
