I remember when I was growing up and the reluctant cricketer in me and the generosity of my elder brother were always at loggerheads. He wanted my bat and pad to be close together while I remained happy with doing what I always did, inspite of the fact that it closed the door to newer, better, correct options.
I suspect status quo is the domicile of comfort. Playing safe. Of being deliberately in a state of impasse when change is resisted. When it is looked at with suspicion. As they say, when your fist is in a tight clench, little do you realise what is slipping through your fingers. And mind you, a lot is. When a toddler is crawling, it is only a natural preamble to her walking- she has no intent to remain in crawling mode forever.
We hang onto the coat tails of what was. At the cost of exploring what could be. We are afraid that whatever we have gained or whatever we have accomplished could be lost should we tread a new path. Our status, the connections we have made and the competence we have earned, though interim, is cherished and therefore protected with all vigor and rigidity. And we shut shop. Letting go becomes difficult.
Emotional enrollment is the bedrock of learning. That is what mentors, coaches, leaders are looking for when in the quest to moving the needle from ” what got you here, won’t get you there ‘. “Ignore sunk costs” is the critical lesson of useful decision making. More on this in an earlier blog post here.
Better will remain a slippery slope should the idea be to rever the status quo. We will find a thousand ways to maintain the narrative of security, entitlement or culture( people like us do things like this).
The ebbs and flows in our lives can be better managed. Are you defending sunk costs, sticking with projects simply because that’s easier( remember that domicile of comfort called the status quo) than leaving them behind? Which flows could be improved with focus and effort?
The decisions we make today( read probably hard choices) can lead to better outcomes later. The present(today) is a present(gift) and real but we still spend most of our lives living in later.