Complacency — The Mindset That Traps Our Future Pioneers
You all know this type of person, every time you go out with them, they complain about the service or how illogical the ordering system is etc. It’s quite annoying, I know, but is there some kind of truth or benefit to it?
Two things come up in my mind when thinking about this.
The first is the stoic approach, don’t let it bother you since you can’t control it. You’ll just ruin your, and the other people’s mood/experience.
The second is that accepting how things are, and being satisfied with your life, is by definition stagnant. You’ll never grow as a person if you don’t push back and perhaps complain.
So of course the answer is a bit of both. I personally detest complainers who don’t take action. I’m not saying every time you complain you need to fix the problem, just don’t be the person who’s judging everything from the sidelines.
Also, if you have aspirations in life, being satisfied where you are won’t give you the drive to work towards your goals. As the wise poet once said:
It’s about drive, it’s about power
We stay hungry, we devour
Put in the work, put in the hours and take what’s ours (ahoo)
— Dwayne The Rock Johnson
Being anti-complacent will probably make some people not like you anymore, like our good buddy Steve Jobs. He was never complacent, never satisfied with the product, so everyone disliked him. This is understandable, working for a guy who never appreciates your work isn’t the greatest experience. But because of his attitude, we have the iPhone, iPad, iPod, ...
He pushed innovation to its limits. And now everyone is enjoying his creation and admiring his work.
Seeing that something doesn’t work as it’s supposed to and solving it by perhaps creating the next new iPhone is the perfect way of being anti-complacent.
This isn’t for everyone, duhh. Some people are perfectly satisfied with how they currently live their life and don’t want/need a lot more. But for the 1% of innovators, activators, entrepreneurs, scientists, … you guys should adopt this mindset ASAP.
The reason why this might sound counterintuitive to some people at first is because we were never thought this.
We learn to be grateful where we are and that other people have it way worse etc. We learn how to be content with what we have and that we shouldn’t want/need more. That’s all good when you’re in the position where you want to stay at for the rest of your life. But the likelihood that you’re at that position right now, is small.
Don’t throw that gratefulness out the window though. You’ll need it at some point. Otherwise, you’ll be the I have it all but I’m a depressed person.
Personally, I still practice gratefulness every day and recommend it to everyone. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not satisfied where I’m at right now in life.
You can be grateful for what you already have while realising that if you work more, you can be grateful for even more things.
Be anti-complacent.
