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After 20 years of working counterintelligence cases, I was asked to become the spokesperson for the FBI in Northern California. My first reaction was “No” — I was very comfortable in my position as a case agent. By this time, I knew every step in the manual and had my network of informants in place so I could launch an investigation against a foreign intelligence officer with very little effort on my part.
I felt the quiet pleasure of smug satisfaction with my existing situation. But in the back of my mind, I knew I wasn’t continuing to hone my skills; I wasn’t striving to do my best. In truth, I had become complacent; I had reached a plateau.
When I said “NO,” I was refusing to take my career to the next level. I was successful as a case agent, but my complacency was not nurturing a desire to grow professionally, or personally either.
“The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.” — Benjamin E. Mays
Stanford researcher Carol Dweck observed, “There is no relation between students’ abilities or intelligence and the development of mastery-oriented qualities. Some of the very brightest…
