24 Aug How to Not Let Complacency Crush Your Chance to Win
There’s nothing better than winning.
All of our hard work pays off and we get to taste victory. It’s in this moment that the hardest mental battle begins.
Take your foot off the gas and coast from here on out..
..or push that pedal to the metal so you can win again.
One of the hardest things in sports is to repeat as champions. Once you win, that hunger to succeed starts to die. You don’t work as hard. Your inner drive is weaker. You lean on your ego and what you’ve accomplished before rather than on your desire to win.
It’s natural for us to become complacent after hitting a goal. We hit that weight loss goal and relax on our nutrition.
We finish that marathon and stop running altogether, just like when we get that promotion, we stop working as hard.
We won’t see the results of our decision to slip toward complacency at first. Like all meaningful markers, they lag behind. But pretty soon you won’t be able to run from them.
- You gain back all of the weight you’d lost.
- You find yourself out of a job just two months after being promoted.
- You lose the starting job after leading the district last season.
When we allow our ego – and what we accomplished in the past – dictate how we show up today, we will lose in the future.
No question.
How can we make sure we don’t get caught slipping?
1. Practice gratitude.
Choosing to practice gratitude for what we’ve done and leveraging that gratitude for the opportunities we still have ahead is one way we’re able to battle back against complacency.
We celebrate the achievements we’ve made – don’t neglect to celebrate what you’ve done, but don’t let it distract you from what you still have the chance to accomplish.
We don’t get caught up living in the past, and simultaneously, we’re don’t want to lose out on tomorrow’s moment because we’re thankful to have it. It keeps us humble while keeping our foot on the gas.
2. Compete against yourself.
Winning once is nice. Winning again? That’s what the greats do. Every day is a challenge to raise the bar on what you did. Can you do 1% better this month on sales calls than you did last month?
Every day is a competition. The greats have the mentality that they’re showing up to win today.
3. Challenge yourself
Set bigger goals. You won your district, can you win your region or a national award from your company? You sold 10,000 books, can you write a second book that sells 15,000?
Setting bigger goals keeps us continually climbing instead of stopping along the mountain because we reached one nice view. Challenge yourself so you don’t let complacency catch you.
Complacency is one of the biggest challenges that stops the good from ever becoming great.
Don’t let it get you, too.
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