The world is moving and changing quickly. Do you keep pace with the change, stride ahead or are you left behind?
History is littered with stories of amazing companies that were the darlings of investors, and now no longer exist.
For many of these companies, the root of their demise was sewn in the arrogant belief that they were the best and didn’t need to change. They became comfortably complacent.
This doesn’t just happen with companies. It happens with individuals too.
As the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad said, “The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.”
The saying goes – success breeds success. But success is never overnight. And most success is borne out of a restless urge to do better. A desire to not settle for almost good enough.
There’s a willingness, no an eagerness, to push the boundaries, and to look for different ways to do things.
This involves a constant quest for knowledge, and are yearning to learn more. They know they don’t have all the answers. They know that what they’ve done is good, but it can be better.
And so tomorrow they’ll try something different. Tomorrow they’ll push the boundaries even further.
Living on the edge or outside of their comfort zone is normal. Comfort is a sign of complacency. And complacency is one step closer to irrelevance – particularly in a world that is constantly changing.
There’s no doubt that if you want to stay relevant you need to continue to grow and try new things. You need to be comfortable rattling the cage and shaking yourself out of complacency.
What drives complacency in you? Is it:
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of failure
- Fear of success
- Fear of hard work
Don’t let the fear hold you back. Harness how it makes you feel. Use its power to take you further.
Change happens every day. You can either put yourself in the driver’s seat or you can sit back and be a disinterested passenger. The latter is fine – as long as you don’t complain about the destination when you land somewhere you don’t want to be.
Choose your destination. Select the role you play in your life.
Change happens. Make it work for you.