The Great Acting Blog: “The Achievement Trap”
When we successfully complete one of our long term objectives, we [quite rightly] take some time to relax, to acknowledge what we’ve done, enjoy it and let it sink in. All is good in the world, we feel a sense of contentment, of peace, we’re at ease – finally we’ve got everything under control.
Herein lies the trap: we can get to like this feeling just a little bit too much, and a week can turn into a month, a month into a year and a year into years, and we stroll around keeping ourselves snug and warm by reminding ourselves of our accomplishment – and we fail to accomplish much else. Our own pride has seduced us into a mindset of inaction and we remain on the plateau of our [now] former glory. We cannot find the mindset required to face up to the stress, turmoil and hard graft required to achieve the next big thing.
The mindset we need to push on is borne out of an impatient discontentment with our lot. It’s this discontentment which we need to cultivate in order to break out of our cosy little corner and face down the next storm.
Bianca/ 12.12.2013
This is so true. Especially with regard to the fact that we sluggishly become content with our lives – living on past glories. But I agree, the drive of the discontentment with our lot eventually pushes us past this point! It reminds me of a quote, not quite sure who said it but it comes down to the fact that when the fear of staying becomes greater than the fear of going, that is when you grow your wings!
Thanks for reminding us again!
Kind regards,
Bianca
James/ 12.12.2013
Thanks Bianca,
yes, I do agree with that quote but I think we need to be able to push ourselves on consciously, rather than wait for the situation to do it.