Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success"

December 19th...From "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success" we read,

"Don't be complacent, ever!" Allen James

Complacency....we are all familiar with the word, and the reality of being complacent. The Merriam/Webster Dictionary defines "complacency" as:

"com·pla·cen·cy

 noun \kəm-ˈplā-s^ən(t)-sē\

: a feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better : a complacent feeling or condition" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complacency).

Throughout my life I have veered from this "feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better".  I can recall as a young boy being taught in church about the cautions of become complacent in our service.  The Bible states, “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).  This teaching spilled over into my daily life regarding not only just living, but working, playing...in every aspect I feared being "luke warm", or complacent, and being "spit out" of the Lord's mouth, or in other words, not living up to my end of the deal.

Complacency is a killer of spirit and of will, and as Tunde Jaiyebo, of the Nigerian Tribune says so sufficiently, "C omplacency is a blindfold which eventually leads to non maximisation of one’s potential and eventual loss. Change is the name of the game. The only constant thing in life, they say, is change. Complacency will stifle innovation which is the major key to survival in our present world. There is a pathetic story of complacency in The Independent newspaper of 20 January 2012 in an article titled “Kodak’s lesson in the dangers of complacency”.

“There’s no better illustration of the business maxim “change or die” than Kodak. The company whose name was, for almost a century, synonymous with film has filed for bankruptcy.

Kodak marketed the world’s first flexible roll film in 1888; it turned photography into a mass hobby with its $1 Brownie camera; it’s easy-load Instamatic became the most popular camera ever in the 1960s; and, in 1975, it even created the first digital camera. But it could not keep up. The company cut staff numbers from 145,000 to just 19,000, dynamited aged factories, and constantly reworked its business strategy. For all that, it never overcame its reliance on film.

Big mistake. Constant innovation, as Apple has shown, is the way to stay ahead, even more so in the face of the seismic changes of the digital age. Once the world trusted Kodak with its memories, now it looks like they are all it will have left.”

Life is not static. Life is dynamic and to be complacent is to be pushed aside and overtaken. We must never allow ourselves to fall into the quicksand of complacency. We must always remind ourselves at the point of any achievement that there is always much more to achieve. Complacency will steal our future. “We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.” Thomas Edison. Naturally we all prefer success to adversity but if we do not handle success well it can be our undoing. Like they say, the enemy of your future success is your present success (and this is due to the temptation of complacency). “Adversity has its uses. It keeps you sharp and on your toes, ready to manage all that life has to throw at you. This is the only way to survive and triumph. Conversely, success blunts your edge. It makes you lax when you should be firm. It makes you complacent when you should be vigilant and there lies the danger. Anybody can discern the obvious dangers of adversity. It has all the subtlety of a truck running right over you. But if you manage to survive the first truck, the other trucks will find it harder to hit you because you are ready for them. On the other hand, the dangers of success are harder to notice".

Observe how you're living your life. Focus on your intentions, your progress, or lack thereof in your journey toward personal success.  With the first signs of complacency, re energize.  Look at the forks in the road and be willing to take "the road less traveled", as it certainly will allow your complacent attitude to veer and redirect your live to possibly greater, more rewarding experiences.

Don't be complacent, ever, and don't forget to keep looking up. : ) AJ