Daily Inspiration 4-24-14

"Complacency is 

a disease of familiarity, 

which is compounded 

by boredom." 

 -- Albert K Strong 

Wallace D Wattles had some perfect advice when he said that, "you can advance only by more than filling your present place." I don't know if you have ever read his book written in 1911 titled, The Science of Getting Rich, or not, and if you have not, I highly recommend it because it is a wealth of excellent ideas. You can advance only by more than filling your present place is just one, yet it is such a powerful statement.

If you're a person who is managing people, you must have seen the likes of the quote I began with about complacency. And, I'm sure it must also make sense how the rest of that quote speaks the truth. When you tie that together with the Wallace D Wattles quote about more than filling your place, it is easy to see how people get into positions and then settle into a routine, or a rut, depending on the point of view.

As a manager, you can't really motivate anyone. They have to motivate themselves. But, a manager has a huge amount of influence when it comes to familiarity and boredom. And, a manager can inject enthusiasm into an organization, along with a new, or renewed sense of purpose. Of course, this would require that the manager motivate him or herself to their original task of more than filling their present place.

It is often easier to think of replacing those complacent ones, especially if they are longer in the tooth. I recall the first auto dealer I worked for who was a wise man. He had this phrase, "the new broom sweeps the cleanest." He was Irish to the core, and it wasn't until over 35 years later that I found where that idea came from. It is an old Irish saying that says, "A new broom sweeps clean, but the old broom knows the corners." 

As people near or pass typical retirement age, as managers, we need to think about how the organization will continue into the future and continue to grow. It is probably good at this point to begin bringing in new people without necessarily replacing the old. It is true that if the older ones are complacent and nothing is done about it, they will negatively affect the newer ones. I've seen that happen. However, it need not be that way. If you consider the full Irish saying quote and have the brooms work together, that floor could be spotless.

Yet underlying all of this is something else that Wallace D Wattles said so well. It is this:


"The Very Best Thing You Can Do For The Whole World (including your organization and yourself!) Is To Make The Most Of Yourself." [Parenthesis mine] 

Spread Some Joy Today--"To become enthusiastic, act enthusiastically." -- Frank Bettger