Complacency:

“–a feeling of calm or smug satisfaction with your abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder.

–self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies, an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction.”

It’s a false belief that you’re doing the right things to advance or improve/maintain your life when you’re really not. It’s a hostility to criticism, self-awareness, soul-searching and the “near enemy to mindfulness.”  Complacency is a serial killer of desire, passion, creativity, inspiration and motivation. Moreover, it just as ruthlessly slays relationships, marriages, careers, projects and companies. Complacency exists in a state of separation from others, and therefore it is a lonely place.

Complacency can cause us to forget our faith, our struggle, our abundance and our blessings. When we are complacent, we forget where we came from; what it was once like to hunger and dream and push to accomplish what we wanted so desperately in our lives and for our lives. What kinds of people we once were determined to become. It can also keep us from moving forward and taking risks. We can be paralyzed by our comfort. Complacency is a barrier to greatness. Human beings are meant to move, to evolve, to grow.

There are people who may know they’re being complacent and those who do not. Complacency can creep up at any moment if we’re not careful. How are you evolving? As a leader. A boss. An employee. A husband, wife, father, mother, friend. Are you consistently doing things that stretch you —  intellectually, professionally, personally and otherwise? Or have you turned on cruise control and are hoping for the best?

Is there an antidote to complacency?

Mindfulness. Gratitude. Humility.

While these may seem like lofty pursuits, they are rather the gritty work of day to day personal hygiene required to live a meaningful, successful life. And though meaningful and successful are arguably subjective, self-change has to be your operating premise.

If there is an antidote, then it includes a willingness to believe that your own attitudes and thinking, including subconscious thinking, give rise to your emotions and ultimately your behaviors. It’s a spirit of honest and ongoing self-reflection/self-criticism where you think, “Obviously, if I’m unhappy, I’m doing something wrong here. I have some faulty assumptions and my choices are not, over time, leading to what I want. At the same time, I have the ability to figure out which choices are mistaken, and why, and make changes in my thinking and action that will yield better results.

…..this is a WIP.. and will continue