As a generation growing up with microwaves, the information superhighway, and smartphones, we take for granted how accessible things are and the immediacy of information. Sadly, “to err is human”, and we forget that these are not things we are entitled to, but blessed to have. The fact of the matter is, we are entitled to nothing, and every gift we receive, every opportunity presented to us, is a blessing.
“Always Be Better”, is a mantra I live by. The telephone was invented in in 1876. And it wasn’t until the 1990s when regular households were able to stop trying to see how far they could pull the phone cord so that they could check the oven and not yank the phone off of the table / wall. From the 1990s onward, we have seen the shelf life of inventions and innovations shrink. This is the world we live in now. If we do not strive to be better, we will fall behind, and lose relevance. Becoming better isn’t something we aim for now, it’s something that we MUST do.
We are entitled to nothing. We are not entitled to being able to that new house, car, or vacation. We are not entitled to every new device that gets launched by Apple, or Sony, or that ergonomic chair that will prevent our rear ends from falling asleep while sitting for hours. We are not entitled to our opportunities nor success. The problem is, the more we get used to something, the more we take for granted its existence. The love of our families. The fact that we live in Canada; a country with an abundance of clean air and fresh water. What have we DONE to deserve any of it? What’s makes us think for a moment that we are entitled to any of it?
Warren Buffet says that he stays away from investing in companies that demonstrate ANY of the ABCs – Arrogance, Bureaucracy, and Complacency. We are entitled to nothing. The moment we rest on our laurels and feel good about ourselves is the moment the world passes us by.
Last year, I mentioned many times, how grateful and how humbled I was of the journey that we have had so far. But regardless of these minor milestones; this growth, this trajectory, isn’t something I’m entitled to. The world will keep on turning regardless if we turn with it, stand still, or try to turn it back. And unless we keep endeavouring to move forward, the world will move on without us.
We might be at a place in our lives, where we are happy with where we are. We might be comfortable. Sadly, it is comfort begets complacency. It is only when there is struggle that we have something to overcome, achieve, and accomplish.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t appreciate whatever accomplishments that we have made, far from it. We should be grateful to the obstacles that we have overcome. We should count our blessings for the successes that we have realised. But we are entitled to nothing.
And while you’re the one reading this, I am actually writing this to remind myself. We must continue to work hard. We must not settle for mediocrity. George Bernard Shaw once said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man”. This 2021, let’s endeavour to be unreasonable. Let’s conquer complacency.
Always be better, because we are entitled to nothing.
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