Beware Complacency.
This is part 12 of a 14 part series describing my professional philosophy. Part 11 can be found here.
What’s the status for a current goal that you are working on? Have you achieved all that you set out to do? Are you almost finished and taking a breather to get ready for the final hurdle? Or are you done with that major goal and relaxing — just enjoying the fact that you completed a big feat and want to taste the fruits of your labor?
Good, you earned it.
Don’t stay in that relaxation mode for too long!
Sure, you did something big — whatever it was — it’s a great thing to step back and soak in your project outcomes, personal journey arrival, or other major event that has kept you focused for a lengthy period. But if you stay too long in that frame of mind, you may miss the next big opportunity or lose the momentum to accomplish the next challenge ahead of you, which is number 11 of my 12-point tenets for success:
Beware Complacency.
Life is a never-ending onslaught of new challenges and tests. They may present themselves slowly over time or arrive in bunches — as my sales-focused colleagues would say, “it’s either a slow drip or a tidal wave.”
Regardless of your role and what your next anticipated challenge may be, don’t rest on your past accomplishments — continue to press forward and welcome the friction which comes with the new adversity. If the new challenges aren’t coming on their own, it’s up to you to find one — so challenge yourself effectively by leaning into the discomfort required with NOT BEING COMPLACENT. This comes back to the first point of this philosophy — “No Pressure. No Diamonds.” No good thing will come without the challenge that makes us question why we took it on, what’s next, or why this happens to us?
In more colorful terminology, “Embrace the Suck.”
Not every challenge, goal, or major task will require that kind of savage mindset. But one that helped me through every major task in my adult life was learned in boot camp from my very serious physical fitness instructors: “The only easy day WAS YESTERDAY!” (Navy SEAL training mantra.)
This phrase has been my constant reminder that whatever I did in the past is history and that the present or future challenges will be what is truly difficult. Use your past experiences to muster the required strength and remind yourself that YOU CAN ACHIEVE WHAT YOU SET OUT TO DO. As the Stoical Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelias, wrote almost two millennia ago about the burdens for which we have the power to overcome:
“Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.” (Meditations.)
Enjoy the accomplishments which have gotten you to where you are and think fondly of the blood, sweat, and tears that it took to reach those goals. But keep that train a-rolling! Set your phone’s ‘Do Not Disturb’, visualize the end state, focus on what needs to be done now (not later), and know that “this too shall pass” — you will be better for it because you faced it and embraced it.