Mary Kay believed that one could not be satisfied with past accomplishments but should seek to constantly improve.
Two things come to mind with these ideas of Mary Kay; the first is satisfaction. Satisfaction with our past accomplishments can lead us to do a couple of things:
One, to relax in a way that hurts our going forward. I'm not talking about resting and relaxing to recharge ourselves here, I'm talking about the type of relaxation that makes us think we've arrived and so lose the edge that brought us success in the first place.
Two, to stop moving forward agressively. Satisfaction can lead us to being content with things as they are. If we get tempted to look back at our accomplishements, we are moving in a direction that takes us off the now, and away from the future. In other words, it will bring disaster.
The past is no longer with us. Past accomplishments can be something we look back at once we've decided to retire or get into some other field. The past has no guarantee that it will impact the present or create the future. We shouldn't get tempted to dwell there.
Like Mary Kay says, if we are looking at our past accomplishments, it will take away from the desire to improve. I think it also takes away the desire to create.
To me there needs to be a clarification between satisfaction and contentment. Contentment means we enjoy and love what we're doing while we move forward, while satisfaction focuses on what was, and causes us to remain in a holding pattern.
Those who are very effective in business know how to enjoy the present process, while moving toward the future. The ineffective like to dwell on past accomplishments while only maintaining what they've got now. We should only want to be the effective. Those that want to maintiain alone, won't be able to keep even what they have.
Mary Kay always sought to improve and move ahead toward the future. So should we!
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