A new-born starts life being carried around; soon he becomes unsatisfied with being carried around, and begins trying to sit on his own. When he has mastered sitting, still unsatisfied with his level of achievement, he starts learning to crawl, then stand, walk, run and in some cases fly. Not being satisfied with a status quo has been the starting point of all advancements. Every worthwhile achievement and invention has always started with “not being satisfied”; it is a force that pushes us to be better and do better. It impresses in us a strong desire to make better use of the resources available to us to create a better environment for ourselves. If you are not “not satisfied”, you will not have any desire to invest any time or effort in improving any aspect of your life or achieving any objective, actually, you will not have any objective. You will simply not care; you would be satisfied.
Take a moment to look back on your life and think about all your achievements, both the big ones and the small ones, you will see that the primary driving force has always been that you were unsatisfied by a situation. Every single human effort is driven by this feeling; from learning a skill to building a business.
In this context, there are two kinds of people on earth; the first group are people who are satisfied with their lot. They remain in their situation no matter how undesirable and try to fit their expectations in it. The other kind of people are the ones that are not satisfied, no matter what people in this group achieve, there is always some kind of craving in them for more. I know that deep down you have already deciphered the category you belong.
Being satisfied means you have practically shut the door of improvement. It means you become hesitant or entirely uninterested in fresh opportunities. If you belong to the satisfied category, I hope it is not too late to convince you that satisfaction is a journey that should never end.
Some people feel that “not being satisfied” is nothing but greed; they even misconstrue it to mean lack of contentment. They may be right, especially if the dissatisfaction is limited to “more than him” or “more than them”. This is to say, simply, that “not being satisfied” becomes unhealthy when it is based on a comparison with others. However, when it is based on “more than myself yesterday”, doing better than I did the last time, it gains the right essence and becomes a kind of jet fuel for the mind.
What happens when you become satisfied?
Whenever a person allows his mind to sink into that inert state of satisfaction, a few reactions begin to take place in that person’s mind:
Stagnation: Think of the new-born from the beginning, what exactly drives this continuous quest for advancement? You guessed right. What do you think would have happened if the new-born was satisfied with being carried around or any other stage? Right again! He will not be able to get past that stage.
Being satisfied with your current position makes you stagnant because you do not have a goal, and without a goal, you would not even try to take a definite step. Even if you are favourably placed, you will lose your drive without even realizing it and you will not be able to achieve the things you could have.
Indifference: Indifference is basically a lack of curiosity, excitement and enthusiasm. The combination of these feelings is so valuable in any venture that the absence of any one of them makes it difficult to attain any form of success.
Curiosity is what drives us towards new concepts, to seek new information and experiences. This has been the first step to many mind-blowing discoveries. Excitement simply means being in a state of high energy. It is this feeling that provides the gusto with which we pursue our aims. Enthusiasm relates to doing something with zeal and keen interest.
A combination of these forces propels us towards new ventures, even the ones with great uncertainty, and allows us to approach them with a positive attitude. It opens us up to opportunities we never thought existed. This combination is linked to success not only because it leads to creative discoveries, it also activates personal and professional development. Being satisfied however, robs us of all these.
Complacency: Complacency is a feeling of uncritical self-satisfaction, usually accompanied by unawareness of potential pitfall ahead. People who have had some measure of progress and achievements most often face this particular danger. Any mind that allows this danger in will begin to manifest a couple of signs, the two most threatening to success are:
1. You no longer striving to do your best. This is what the word itself connotes, a deep-seated ignorant satisfaction. A satisfaction that hinders any form of growth or success, especially in the highly competitive market of the world.
2. You no longer seeking new opportunities. The primary impression “not being satisfied” makes is keeping you hungry, hungry for improvement, hungry for success. That is where its power lies, in pushing you to break boundaries and achieve successes and to do this; one would require constant upgrade of skill and goals. One would need to seek new opportunities for growth and performance.
Achieving success in any endeavour is hard, yet staying successful is even harder. Achieving success means you are doing something right, and you should at least keep doing it. You limit your success by being complacent; sadly, it is the most common mistakes people make. No wonder only a few people are able to achieve and sustain success.
How not to be too dissatisfied
In the process of remaining intentionally unsatisfied, we must be careful to keep it within healthy limits. This is of paramount importance because too much dissatisfaction is another thing that takes us down. Many times, we lose sight of the fact that our competition is with our previous self, to do better than we did the last time, and not with anyone else. This drags us into comparing ourselves with people in similar positions, which brings rivalry and unhealthy satisfaction.
No comments:
Post a Comment