Warning Signs of Complacency, III.
This is the third part of the topic mentioned above. I was unable to squeeze it into two parts post so I decided to make it into three parts and this is the last one. You can read the first and second parts here:
Warning Signs of Complacency, II.
3. You are not seeking to take advantage of new opportunities.
When you keep watching opportunities pass you by, then you are getting complacent. It's easier for us to think that certain opportunities would always come but most opportunities won't always come back and that's why they are called opportunities. This is why I admire Galenkp on Hive. He left his old job for a new one. He left the familiar to uncharted waters. It's easier for us to stay with the known rather than seek new opportunities and if care is not taken, staying with the familiar can somehow get us complacent.
Sometimes you need new challenges to keep you on your toes. Just as we sometimes say that we need trouble to drive us to our knees even though God would have preferred for us to constantly be on our knees and not only when we are in trouble. It's the same with life, we shouldn't wait for challenges to strike before we push ourselves further. When you are not seeking new opportunities and holding on to just the one you have without alternatives, it's obvious that you are getting complacent.
It's easier to get complacent. Today's achievement is tomorrow's mediocrity. No one should tell you that you need to keep reading or that you need to study or move your life forward before you see the need to. We sometimes wait for others to tell us what we need to do and when we get to that point, that means we are being complacent. You don't have to be a secondary character in your life's story. You need to sharpen your sensitivity to know when you need to do certain things - when you need to act. No one prepares for war during the war but you have to prepare for war during a time of relative peace. No one has to remind you to eat when you are hungry, isn't it? No one needs to tell you to sleep when you are tired, isn't that true? Why should you wait to be told when to seek new opportunities? Until you lose the one you are holding on to? It might be too late.
4. You are not building, maintaining or growing your contacts which is the currency of growth.
Relationships are indicators of the currency of growth. You haven't grown if all you have is still the same old contacts you've had years ago. Your new contacts should make your old contacts uncomfortable...in a good way. It's a sign that you are growing when they are trying to catch up with who you are evolving to be which would encourage them to also step out of their comfort zone. You know you are growing when everything that is on your head is not on people's minds and what you used to think was funny is no longer funny. There is a shift in the way you think and see things. When you stop being predictable, you are growing.
Everyone doesn't have to like you. You are not supposed to fit into everyone's schedule and when you attract those who challenge your thinking to be better, you leave the norm behind. Stop gunning down who you are so that you can fit into where you just left. Identify relationships that are not making you better, tilt towards the ones that are helping your life and be open to enlarging your circle of influence rather than holding on to blind loyalty that doesn't serve any purpose in your life.
5. You don't risk being wrong. You don't risk sharing your opinion or your ideas.
You know you are getting complacent when you don't want to risk being wrong, so you keep your opinion or idea to yourself. They say that discussion is the exchange of ideas while an argument is a display of foolishness. When you are wrong, you can learn but when you don't share your opinion on a matter, how would you learn or improve others?
Fear has got so many people locked in that they stopped having an opinion. Have an opinion and stop playing it safe. You don't have to be right but your act of boldness to share can make you learn. You cannot be a leader and not take risks or get on people's nerves. Stop crying that people hate you because they are supposed to hate you. It's part of the requirement in life to drive you to your best. There are those God sends to your life to get on your nerves...to push you away from mediocrity. They are your stimulators and that's how you have to see them.
We keep learning in life and if you always want to be right rather than to be wrong, you are on a slippery road to the land of complacency where you feel you have nothing to learn from others and it's a matter of time before you would be left behind.
The End.
Thank you for your time.
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Is true, new opportunities give us more duties that makes us rationale and as a reason to push harder in life.