Be Honest About Whether or Not You’re Guilty of Complacency
Sometimes, our satisfaction and progress towards our goals is impeded by our own complacency. Complacency is the feeling of being okay with whatever happens around you.
This happens with online entrepreneurs when they experience a little bit of success, but instead of working toward the next level, they stay right where they are because it’s easier.
While being a little complacent is fine, being overly complacent is a dangerous thing. You shouldn’t always hate where you are in life, but you have to be able to be somewhat critical of your life to see where you can improve.
If everything is always fine, you won’t ever overcome any obstacles, and you’ll be stuck in an unfulfilling job forever. You have to find the right balance between being grateful for what you have, and wanting something better.
Complacency may have started being instilled in you as early as your first few years of school. Maybe you were told that you wouldn’t really amount to anything, so you got comfortable with the mediocre and just accepted it.
Maybe you started to think that you were doing just fine with the minimum amount of effort, so there was no reason to spend too much time focusing on your schoolwork. Once you reached the real world, these habits probably came along with you, and you’re less successful because of it.
How exactly do you undo so many years of complacency? How do you change your ways? Simply put, it’s like unlearning any other negative trait. You have to make it your main focus and work on it first thing every day.
Start pointing out everything that you would like to be better in your life. You don’t exactly have to be depressed about it, but being a little upset is a good way to drive you. Even more importantly, start making actual progress towards your goals and changes.
This is the only real way to break the cycle of complacency. Changing your complacent ways will help you immensely. First, you’ll notice that you’re much happier by being a little negative sometimes.
While it might sound strange, it makes sense when you think about it. If you’re always happy all the time, and it becomes commonplace, that feeling loses its importance. You need a bit of bad to be able to appreciate the good.
Secondly, you’ll work towards your goals more effectively. If you’re fine with everything as it is, you won’t have any desire to change your life. You need some kind of push to make you want to change things for the better, and not being content with everything might just be that push.
Are Your Closest Relationships Supporting Your Personal Satisfaction?
Sometimes, we’re held back from achieving our goals by the people we least suspect: those closest to us. Although it might be hard to accept, the people you’re the most well acquainted with might be working against you, whether they realize it or not.
They act as obstacles, preventing you from doing the things you love or pursuing your dream job. They might say things that make you rethink the path you want to go down, or make you feel as if you won’t be good enough to make it to your goals – especially if you’re trying to launch a new career path for something like online entrepreneurial efforts.
However, it’s not always that clear. Your friends and family will have different ways of interfering with your personal satisfaction. Some might be very straightforward and blunt, telling you that your goals are unrealistic or that you’re not good enough to achieve them.
The most dangerous kind are the ones who disguise their blocking as an attempt to help you. They might tell you to not pursue your dreams in the name of job security or some other excuse.
They could try to steer you in another direction, assuring you it’s the best path for you. In reality, only you know what’s best for you. Even if your closest relationships are acting as obstacles, you can’t just cut out everyone who’s important in your life.
If you just started seeing someone and they wanted you to stop pursuing your dreams, then perhaps it’d be a good idea to stop seeing them. However, how could you cut out your own parents if they tried to steer you towards a different career?
You have to be able to set a certain boundary in which you consider their advice if they give it to you, and respectfully decline it if you don’t agree with it. However, if they began to insult your career choice or goals, then they would be crossing the boundary you set.
Once people cross your boundaries, you have to make the decision of whether or not you should keep them in your life or distance yourself from them. You should weigh their positive and negative benefits, and if they’re an overall drag on your happiness, there’s no reason to keep them around – at least not on a continual basis.
Let them know that they’re bringing you down, and you’re not going to associate with them until they change their ways. If you let these people stick around in your life and tell you how to live it, you’ll end up unhappy and dissatisfied.