Complacency Kills Progress

There is nothing more harmful to further desires and pushes for progress than thinking you are “good” to go. Becoming complacent with the current status of your ability, progress, goals, or where you are in life is a detrimental perspective to have for your future.

Complacency has nothing to do with celebrating the small wins, taking a reset break, or going through the motions. Complacency is thinking to yourself that you don’t need to learn more or that you don’t need to improve. It is thinking that you have achieved all you need to. Complacency is a feeling of completion. This feeling of becoming complacent takes away exponentially more than it gives.

Complacency kills progress because, through complacency, your inner drive disappears. The loss of drive sprouts an idea that rapidly festers inside and causes your inner voice to shout that it is okay with where you are.

Becoming complacent makes you lose the critical edge you have when you live in the black-and-white world of feedback. It makes you lose your inner fight when darkness comes, and the only way through is through. You no longer believe in enduring; you simply want to turn the lights on and find what is comfortable. You are okay with being second or even third-tier because you are happy with where you are. The feeling of complacency is the enemy.

Progress is not the only victim of becoming complacent. Dreams also die when feelings of complacency grow. Every itch to act, new idea, or painstaking project you are working on becomes an afterthought if you choose to accept the feelings of complacency. Sometimes dreams are killed before you even start the journey because of becoming complacent.

If you dream of being a quarterback but become complacent, you are okay with not throwing or practicing your footwork daily.

If you dream of becoming a writer but become complacent, you accept writer’s block and hide behind empty pages.

If you dream of running your own business but become complacent, you find yourself back at a 9-5 job sooner than you think.

Dreams are realized by commitment and action—opposite to what becoming complacent promotes. If you stop learning, you find yourself on the path to irrelevancy. If you stop pursuing and challenging yourself, your life becomes purposeless.

Complacency casts a shadow over the path to relevant and purpose-filled lives. Complacency is a killer and must be stopped. Aim to avoid its choking grasps at all costs.

You are never finished. You never know everything. There is always something else to seek. Keep going and don’t get complacent.