My friend Bedros Keuilian once described struggling high performers as “Ferraris driving with the emergency brake on.”
It doesn’t matter what horsepower your engine is…
If your brakes are locked — even with the gas pedal to the floor — you’ll still be neutered in terms of your results.
There are many ways our mindset can prevent us from breakthroughs:
Scarcity thinking… Addiction… Procrastination… Fear of failure… and so on.
But the biggest problem I come across in my high-performing clients is...
Complacency.
Even though clients “complain” about wanting more...
The fact is that so many of them have it just “good enough”...
So good that the fire (the one that existed years ago that fueled you to get this far) has gone out. If you came from a childhood of modest means... having a 6-figure income, nice house, happy family, and regular workout routine can subconsciously be the brake holding you back.
Life is simply too good (aka “good enough”) for you.
That’s why you can go through life consciously claiming to want more ...
But subconscious complacency is quietly killing your dreams.
You have “enough” money and success so you are “ok” with spending your time ineffectively.
Now I know what you’re thinking...
“You’re wrong, Craig! I’m NOT complacent!”
Sorry.
You’re wrong.
But it’s not your fault…
This is NOT a conscious mistake!
Complacency is a subconscious mental anchor weighing you down.
And it’s the #1 killer of dreams, businesses, & relationships.
But I refuse to let that happen to you.
Here’s why I’m so concerned about complacency...
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s been some craziness going on the last few years.
Government overreach… reckless money printing and spending… disruption to the global order…
And now the U.S. is dealing with a debt crisis most of us saw coming from a million miles away.
There’s a good chance the next couple years — maybe the next decade — will be less pleasant for America and the western world.
And so there will come a point where we all wish we had made more money during the good times and done more preparation for the tough times ahead.
Time is of the essence and you can’t let complacency kill your future.
You need to think about your kids and your kid’s kids.
NOTE: Overcoming complacency doesn’t mean 12-hour work days and sacrificing your health and family time.
Killing complacency (so it doesn’t kill you) simply means becoming a more effective Empire Builder who “works” less and THINKS more.
The exact 3 tactics you need for killing complacency are:
1. Clear Setting of Goals & Deadlines
2. Detailed Goal Achievement Planning (using my 90-Day System)
3. Public Accountability ... burn the boats, tell the world, lay it on the line
Let me give you a real world example of how these work....
In 2015 I was a single multi-millionaire...
And I was utterly trapped by my own complacency.
I’d already made plenty of money…
And I had an easy life of traveling the world.
I had no dependents and few responsibilities (outside of my employees and dog – who essentially spent all of his time with my mom on the old farm).
It sounds so good, and in many ways it was, which is why it was so tempting to continue down that path.
BUT…
The complacency was killing me.
I knew there was more.
I wanted a family.
And I wanted to build a coaching empire big enough to directly help tens of thousands of entrepreneurs achieve the income and freedom they deserve.
So I fought daily against the inertia of remaining in my complacent comfort zone.
Ultimately I used the 3 tactics outlined above to escape the complacency trap.
Most people don’t know this but I deployed these tactics in a “personal ad” disguised as a book.
That’s right... the REAL reason I wrote the Perfect Day Formula was to find my wife Michelle!
The book was secretly an old-school personal ad you would see in a newspaper’s “singles section”.
I got the idea from legendary copywriter Gary Halbert – who in the 1980’s took out a full page ad in the LA Times (at a 6-figure expense) to find his wife.
Not being as bold as Gary, I slipped my single’s ad inside a productivity & personal development book ... you’ll find it in Chapter 21.
That’s the Vision Chapter that manifested Michelle.
I put my personal ad out there to the world so that at every event readers and coaching clients would ask me “How’s the search for Mrs. Ballantyne going?”
I wrote it so that Bedros would repeatedly ask me about it on our Empire Podcast episodes.
I wrote that chapter to kill my complacency! (You might find this genius or insane… or both.)
Every time someone brought up my Vision Chapter it put the squeeze on me to act in real life.
Today I’m married to the woman of my dreams with a beautiful daughter Isabella…
And soon we’ll be a family of four!
Planning + Accountability + Deadlines KILL COMPLACENCY.
It hasn’t just worked for me.
My good friend Zander Fryer applied the EXACT same principles to meet Maddy, his wife and the love of his life.
Zander, long single, was encouraged to publicly share his goal of finding an amazing woman — with a Facebook group of 2000 coaches.
He set a deadline (Dec. 31st) with consequences (if he failed he had to run down the streets of San Diego naked!). He received accountability from friends & fans.
It killed his complacency... and attracted his perfect partner in record time.
Over to you.
Don’t let complacency kill your future.
1. Set the goal. 2. Create the plan (in great detail). 3. Tell the world for accountability.
And you’ll finally kill that complacency holding you back from being your best self.
Success Loves Speed,
Craig | 