Complacency Will Take You Long Before You're Dead
Do not go gentle into that good night; rage, rage against the dying of the light
Hi Growers 🌱,
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These round-ups are my way of distilling what I’ve gathered and the things I’m thinking about.
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If you don’t have the time to read the full piece (which is short, but I get it), here are the 5 main points:
Life is short. You’re likely further along in your life then you realize.
You never figure things out. Today is the day you act. Not tomorrow.
Dream big. Then dream bigger.
Have the courage to try.
Build a likeminded community to ensure success.
Comfortability Kills
This post is for those eyeing down the rest of their lives and wondering what to do…
This post is for those stories that may sound like this:
Days, weeks, and years go by and a sense of complacency begins to dwell on you. It starts sneakily, and then creeps in ever so presently.
Once blanketed in your own comfort, you become unable to dream of better possibilities for your life.
But more devastatingly, you lose the courage to take risk and even try.
This feeling of getting comfortable in your own ways, is the slow death of the human spirit.
The broken back in humankind.
This stagnation of human potential needs to be viciously fought every single day.
Because the more of people like you that fight mediocrity, the world will be a better place.
If you want to be the most extraordinary version of yourself, then read on…
First Step: Remember Life is Short
The average human life span in America is 78 years which is roughly 4,000 weeks.
I am 27 years old, which means I have lived 1,400 weeks.
Assuming I live the average lifespan, that means I’m 35% into my life.
There is a term I heard from Sahil Bloom called, “memento mori”.
Memento mori is Latin for 'remember that you have to die'.
In modern life, most of you are fortunate to not have to deal with death too much.
Compared to most of human history, death has never been so far removed from your everyday life. Without a doubt this is a positive thing.
But this has caused you to forget how to truly appreciate every moment.
You know that you have a long life ahead of you, so you coast through the days, weeks, and years until you realize how much time has gone by…
Pink Floyd said it best:
Second Step: Develop a Sense of Urgency
Once you have remembered the shortness of life it’s important to let this quickly turn into action.
It’s easy to know that life is short — it’s harder to act like life is short.
You may think that there is a magical point in the future where you “figure things out.” But there is not. You use this excuse to remain comfortable going through the motions. You use this excuse to wait another day.
This is why you need to develop a sense of urgency that today is the day you live your life to the fullest potential.
Not tomorrow.
Today.
Third Step: Dream Big
Failure to live an extraordinary life stems from failure to imagine an extraordinary life.
You should always ask yourself,
“Why am I not swinging for the biggest and best situation possible for myself?”
It’s scary that many of you won’t even take the time to imagine the best possible future.
There’s no reason not to take the time to dream big.
And whatever you imagine for your best possible future, try to make it 10X bigger and better.
You can always pivot. Why play it safe?
Fourth Step: Have the Courage to Try
Dreaming big doesn’t change your life.
In fact, just dreaming alone can make you depressed because your reality is separate from your dreams.
The only way to cross the chasm of your dreams to reality is work.
You need to believe that hard work gets you to your dreams (one of my core life principles).
You have to be willing to try to follow your dreams.
Fifth Step: Build a Like Minded Community
Without a doubt, the people around you influence you through something called “circular energy” which I wrote about previously.
Circular energy happens when a group of people cultivate positive momentum for achieving the best version of themselves by feeding off each others energy.
If you want to live an exceptional life, you need exceptional people around you.
The best thing you can do for yourself to ensure you’re achieving steps 1-4, is to find people who also want to live exceptional lives.
By building your tribe of people who appreciate the finiteness of life, your chances of dreaming big and achieving your goals will dramatically go up in probability.
If you found this article helpful, please share it with a friend or family member who may be feeling stuck and need a reset.
Thank you for reading! 🌱
Aidan
Love this piece. It's coming to me at a pivotal point in my life as well. I've found it helpful to imagine your future self to gain stride and motivation. Who do you want to be? What will your life be like? What work will you be doing? Now live like your future self right now. When Matthew McConaughey won his Oscar back 2014, he gave his speech on who his hero was (and I'll paraphrase here), he said his hero was himself in 10 years. When he hits that ten year mark, they ask "So are you a hero?" he says, "no, no, not even close, my hero is me in another ten years." In short, he's never going to be his hero, but it'll give him someone to chase his whole life, fighting complacency everyday.
Great post man! Your "comfortability kills" point reminds me of a Marine Corps saying that was repeatedly drilled in my head; "complacency kills." It's why I think your five steps are great and they hit the nail on the head and they should be acted upon for those of us that what a conscious and fulfilling life.