Don’t Let the Good Get in the Way of the Great

No matter what we have done or what we think we have not done in our lives or within our organizations, there is always more in ourselves, individually or in our organizations, seeking to be expressed. There’s always more, even if we’re absolutely successful.

There is a human tendency for individuals to become comfortable where we are, to rest on our achievements. However, the nature of life, the nature of this thing we call the universe, is continuous, not static.

Thus, we should take our cues from nature and the things around us. The universe is constantly expanding, and, if we are staying the same—even if where we are is good—we’re going backwards, because everything else around us is moving forward.

Eventually it will catch up to us, and we will atrophy and, eventually, decline.

We have to constantly renew, constantly reinvent ourselves, even when things are going well. Particularly when things are going well is the best time to start looking at creating something new, or a new idea, or new life for an organization.

We need to learn to recognize some of the traps that keep us in the good, maintaining the status quo. One of the stagnating tendencies is that we think it’s going to always be that way. If our situation is good, the basic natural tendency is to think, Well, why change anything if it’s working? But we don’t know what may be happening down the horizon that will make whatever is working now no longer relevant.

In order to move past good to great, we need to keep asking ourselves: What’s next? What’s new down the horizon? If we ask those questions then we’ll start attracting those things that give us clues as to what’s next and what’s new, and we can then start implementing them or trying them out along the way.

Testimonials

“A true spiritual warrior, James Trapp is a beacon of hope, inspiration and wisdom in a world that needs it.”

- Randy Gage
Author, Risky Is the New Safe