When I joined Delta Tau Delta in the fall of 2015, I decided to make a promise to myself. I never told anyone about it, and I won’t lie, I fell off of my promise a couple of times. I changed majors, I gained some weight, I just didn’t put a lot of effort into life. But then I had a moment of clarity. I actually had it in Hawaii with my family during Christmas break. I realized that if I wanted to come back to a place like this, or if I wanted to really go anywhere while on my own, I wouldn’t be able to do it with the way I was currently acting. One of the components that I decided to improve about myself was my sense of complacency. This is a sort of bit of motivation and explanation as to why people should change their sense of complacency and step out of their comfort zones.

The definition of complacency in the dictionary is “a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements, or self-satisfaction.” Now here’s the problem. There are some cases, yes, where it is okay to be complacent. But those instances are definitely ones that should be far and few between. My belief that I had to grow accustomed to was that I can never become complacent. Satisfaction with what I have, unless it is the highest thing I can reach, should be something that I don’t want. One should always be trying to improve themselves. It is a tireless battle, I agree, but it is so worth the struggle. You got an 80% on an exam? You shouldn’t settle with that! Trying to do even better is something that you should want. It’s like settling for 3^rd place, even though you wanted 1^st. Why would you want that? Take that first place! That’s what you wanted more!

A perfect of example of what I am talking about is the #effyourbeautystandards and body acceptance movements that have started recently. I understand sometimes people can’t do anything about if they are too skinny, or too large. I understand that people have mental disorders and problems that can cause ailments. But for many others, they simply just wanted to be complacent with being large. Being that large is something that you should NEVER want! Why would you be happy with being in a body state that will give you a laundry list of problems with your body that will kill you by your mid-40s? That is something that doesn’t make any sense to me.

A group of people who I actually applaud for eliminating complacency in their lives is feminists. But not the silly militant ones that you see as the butt end of jokes online. I mean women who want to seriously break out of their traditional roles and become better human beings, and accomplish new things, despite their social restrictions. They care about all women and their equality, and want to see women become something greater. While I do not always completely agree with their ideas and goals, I see them becoming strong, powerful women, who have a much greater chance of going somewhere in life and changing the world.

To eliminate complacency, it can be tricky, I agree. It took me a lot of self-hatred to motivate me. I hated what I looked like, what I did, how I did in school. When I was in Hawaii, I saw that who I was now was not what I wanted to be. So I set out to improve myself, and I never settled for anything. I always looked how to improve myself, always looked to try and do better. That is something I wish people had the motivation to do. I wish that people would try to be in a state of constant improvement. So get up! Improve yourself! Sitting around watching Netflix all day isn’t going to make you smarter. It’s not going to make you stronger. It’s not going to get you where you want to go!

Do you want to see the world like I do? Looking at it from the computer doesn’t make the experience. Experiencing the world is what you want, so go out and experience it! Do you want to go places, make lots of money, accomplish as much as you can like I want to? Then let’s go! Get up! Go out and start eliminating your complacency. Rework how you think, how you feel, and always want to better yourself. It is only by this that you can become greater, some bigger than you were before. But don't just talk about it. Act upon your words, your dedications, your thoughts. You will see a difference, and it will come back to reward you, in more ways than even comprehensible.

If my words aren't enough for you to want to get better, then here are some words from people who have put in the hours, all the hard work to get where they wanted to go, and help motivate you.

"You get better at working by working. And if you don't work, you're not getting better" -Terry Crews

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning" -Benjamin Franklin

"You cannot allow your desire to be a winner to be diminished by achieving success before, and I believe there is room for improvement in every sportsman." -Lionel Messi

"We have so much room for improvement. Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory... of how we are taking responsibility." -Nancy Pelosi

"Complacency is my enemy." -Trent Reznor

"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best" -St. Jerome

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." -Steve Levenson

All quotes were taken from BrainyQuote.com