Over the past couple of years, something has crept over me. It has always been there. Each year it went from lurking in the background to covering me like a blanket. Similar to a blanket it made me feel warm and comfortable. I felt at peace, content with the blanket, I had no worries. I went about my life with this blanket draped over me every single day. Life was good. I know I am not the only one that has it. In fact, many of the people I come across wear the blanket every day. The blanket is known as complacency. Complacency is defined as “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies When it comes to safety, complacency can be dangerous.”
You see that blanket covers many of us, some of us are aware, others aren’t. This blanket often keeps us from going after what we want, whether it is a relationship or a career path, it is there. Think about your favorite blanket. What are the characteristics of that blanket? There may be different answers to that question as there may be certain things that you enjoy. How does it make you feel? All answers to this questions would be that it makes you feel comfortable.
When you put that blanket on and let it cover you-you never want to take it off. Think about when you wake up in the morning, that blanket is keeping you warm and cozy. You don’t want to get from underneath it. It’s keeping you comfy. Plus it is cold once you take it off. That exactly how the complacency affects us. We get warm and comfortable to the point where we don’t want to make that move.
The common story is that we take a path we either go to school or not. Next, we get a job, it usually isn’t something that we truly like. We go to the job, do the work, make money, it doesn’t seem too bad. After while this becomes routine and you think nothing of it. In fact, it becomes autonomous. You get into a routine, after a while you settle in and start to get COMFORTABLE. It’s like getting ready to lay down at night. You are sprawling in bed trying to get into the right position before you put that blanket on. Once you put that blanket on figuratively and realistically, you get comfortable. You don’t want to move. You want to stay put.
Why would you change anything when you feel this way? This thought has permeated us, this has become a Culture of Content. Too often we get these jobs that take us nowhere, have no value for us and go about life. We do it because it keeps us doing comfortable. We go about every single day because it pays the bills.
We live a life of restrictions, we no longer take the chances that we want. Too many times I have come across people with amazing dreams and aspirations working a job that makes absolutely no sense. I often ask why do they do it? The answer many times is “In a couple of years, I hope to be doing what I went to school for”. I have seen people with some spectacular degrees, ranging from the arts to biomedical science take jobs way below them. I have a degree in sports marketing but I am not doing anything that is even near the field. I took on a job that allows me to live comfortably to a point. I always tell myself I’ll do it for a little longer and then I’ll move one. I’ve been saying this since I graduated. I graduated five years ago. I wear that blanket every day. I have been comfortable, There hasn’t been a reason to take that blanket off. People are always telling me that I have it good and what a great opportunity I have and would silly to go after something else. Those people no matter how much they think they are helping are just wearing snuggies of settlement. I’m ready to take it off. If you know you are made for something better than what you are doing, don’t settle.
But perhaps what intrigues me about this phenomenon is how we will return clothes that don’t fit or tell the waiter that a meal isn’t cooked to our specifications but we are hesitant to make a change in our life when something isn’t a fit. Why don’t we take that same action with our precious lives?
I applaud those who take the risk in life, whether it is moving away from home or taking their dream job. Life is way too short to be milling about your hometown looking forward every weekend.
All I am challenging you to do is take that blanket off, get uncomfortable. Don’t take the safe option, it is easy to lay in bed all day with the blanket on. It is comfortable, it feels good. At the end of the day, however, was there any value? If anything that you came across in this mess of words and thoughts sounds familiar, do something. Stop waiting. Only you can take that blanket off.
Remember, there is an absolute, your days here are numbered. Why spend them lying in bed with the blanket on?
CULTIVATED INFLUENCE 