Complacency Kills
Being content does not mean being complacent. By nature contentment is a state of happiness while still maintaining proactively in the pursuit of more. Thereās a peaceful feeling to being content and happy for your progress as well as for the progress of others.
Being content is a subtle confidence in yourself and genuinely happy for the stage youāre in, while ALSO happy and supportive of the stage that others are inā¦ even if they are further along than you are.
Iām new in Jiu Jitsu. About 9 months in as I write this. Which essentially means that every day I go, Iām literally getting my butt kicked. Iām consciously choosing to participate in an activity where most everyone is better than me. And they let me know that fact consistently. Being content is a state of awareness; with where I am and where I want to be.
And thatās the key word right there; āawarenessā. Which is one of the big separators between being content and being complacent.
Complacency is a lack of awareness. Itās a state of uncritical stagnation. Complacency is a lack of motivation and passive acceptance of where you are WITHOUT desire to be any better. Complacency leads to missed opportunities and opens you up to the dangers and risks of feeling āsecure or safeā.
In police work we have a saying that ācomplacency killsā. And in this line of work, it isnāt just a saying, it literally means that if you are too complacent, you could actually be killed. This means if youāre not paying attention to your surroundings, youāre not staying up to date on trainings, youāre not in good shape, youāre rusty with your weapon manipulation, etc. falling short in any of those areas will cost us more than just our pride. We might not get to go home.
Itās easy to confuse the two. They both can appear as satisfaction. But the origin of these two terms couldnāt be any more different. Contentment is an inner peace and happiness. Aware of your abilities now and actively pursuing more. Complacency is choosing mediocrity. Instead of fight or flight, itās the third option, doing nothing.
Donāt roll over and lose consciousness with your motivation. Stay proactive in your growth. Stay aware of your strengths and attack your weaknesses with gusto. Stay content and satisfied with where you are, but most importantly, stay in the fight.