The Complacency Effect

Has it ever happened to you that you embarked on a goal that is super important and you commit wholeheartedly to it. You really manage to crush all the initial resistance, inertia and mind blocks that stood in the way. This time is going to be different you said.

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Even on days you were sick, low and demotivated, you showed up. Nothing could deter you from your achievement. For the longest time, nothing happened. You still kept at it even though the determination threatened to crumble. Still no results.

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And then one day, out of the blue, you saw small sprouts of progress. They made you feel better. The progress is small but certain.

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Now you are further motivated to expand the small success into visible change. And yes, you manage even that. With the initial inertia long gone, progress is faster as the machinery of change is well oiled. You managed to break-even to show rapid progress.

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At this juncture the change is visible. People compliment you. You can see it for yourself. Ah the satisfaction and glory of having finally achieved a visible change.

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And just like that you stepped into the feel good, warm, fuzzy, achievement-based pool of complacency with its magical lull. You feel great, finally allowing yourself more frequent detours from your path of progress. You feel you earned the small cheats. A little indulgence won’t hurt. That’s when James Clear the author came knocking – A single decision is easy to dismiss. You don’t have a system to track your positive inputs and negative detours, you rely on your brain. The small detours become easy to forget. Their impact - Impossible to measure. Well, the positive gains don’t disappear overnight, do they? That fuels the mistakes even further.

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Like positive progress took time, negative progress is also gonna take time to show up, while you keep repeating your goal detours. As you go on, you hit a plateau. The stagnancy, the rigid unmovable point beyond which you stop improving. Not improving is still ok for you. Just like that you are ok with mediocracy. You have managed an uphill, now you just wish to stay on the miniscule top. But soon reality comes to bite you. The slow but sure negatives you invested in start showing and you start sliding. First the slide is slow. You scamper and struggle. You again pour yourself in regaining back what you lost. But momentum machinery has taken a sure hit. Momentum asks for repetition, consistency and close frequency which you let go. It has a clear deficit that cant be filled back with a few days of pretending everything is just the same. The slide becomes faster. The gains disappearing. The losses showing. And just like that you lose the temporary goal-based motivation.

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What went wrong:

·??????You never tracked what you were working on. You relied on your mental ability. You didn’t discover when you started slipping

·??????A single decision is easy to dismiss like James Clear said. Track what you do every day. If positive, repeat frequently and track that too. If negative, stop right that. Do not repeat frequently at close intervals. Look for 1% incremental improvement areas to stay on top.

·??????Systems function where motivation / inspiration fails. Do not set milestone-based motivation. You will slip when the milestone arrives. Stay committed to the system and process not to the goal / milestone

·??????Interruptions, disruption, change, black swan everything is bound to happen. That’s no excuse for letting things go haywire. Systems will keep you agile and help you recover faster in event of a disruptions. Losses may occur but they will be small and recoverable.

·??????Work hardest in times of peace and the war will be easier. The war is with self. The coach and complacency coexist within you. Feed what you want to strengthen through systems, tracking and improvement.

Does it mean I never get a break? You are human, not a machine. Please schedule your breaks. But what if breaks occur spontaneously sometime? Sure, breaks may come unannounced. Please enjoy them, but do not forget to record them. Space out your break / indulgences to prevent frequent recurrence.