Ever had a feeling that you are not growing?, or changed your team and suddenly you feel that you are not able to perform? or you feel distracted constantly? or you are noticing that you have started to miss out minute details that you earlier were able to notice? or You are constantly looking to pick the easiest way out of any problem?
Well, you might have become complacent. Complacency usually leads to critical errors that eventually leads to reputation destruction and hampers growth.
What is Complacency?
Feeling comfortable with not living up to your potential You are no longer concerned — or looking critically at — your efforts.
To feel comfortable with unexplored potential is to pick the easiest option. ‘Complacency’ is a human behavior, which has evolved over centuries.
Assume that a caveman is given two options:
- The current cave
- The new cave that has better options, maybe a fire, but is 40 kms away
What do you think the caveman will pick?- The caveman will always pick the cave he knows, since he fears he unknown more.
With such evolution, our brain defaults to the easiest option if not kept in constant check.
Complacency can manifest in 2 major ways
- When current success can manifest complacency as ‘I have Arrived’ which keeps us from recognising we are not growing (the vision of the future becomes blurry)
- When there has been no success in a long time which discourages us from striving for improvement(Maybe i’ll stop trying, Maybe I’ll stop speaking up in meetings. Maybe where I’m at isn’t so bad after all)
Once recognised, Start by asking yourself a few questions:
- What could I be doing every day to get better?
- What does success look like for me right now?
- What does success look like for me in 5 years? What can I do today that would set me up for that? And then take baby steps. List a few practical things you could be doing every day to help you grow, think and explore.
Take the ownership and you will see the difference.
~P
