Stagnation leads to decay and destruction. Stagnation always leads to barrenness and where there is any fruit stagnation will stifle life out of it.
A stagnant life is like a stagnant pool. There is nothing flowing in or out. . . hardly any meaningful activity. A stagnant pool is usually abandoned. A stagnant life has very little relevance or impact on others. Like a stagnant pool a stagnant life is poisonous and stinks. People are never attracted to a stagnant life as such life offers little or no good.
A stagnant life has no fresh water flowing into it. A stagnant life is bereft of ideas. It is stuck in the same old things. There is no creativity. A stagnant pool is dirty and unattractive. A stagnant life is unattractive . . .nobody wants to get involved with a stagnant life. A person who is stagnant is pessimistic and a liability to relate with.
A stagnant life is not interested in improving himself. He does not read books neither does he engage in activities that will improve him. Personal development is a taboo to him.
“It is common to find young men ardent and diligent in the pursuit of knowledge; but the progress of life very often produces laxity and indifference; and not only those who are at liberty to choose their business and amusements, but those likewise whose professions engage them in literary inquiries, pass the latter part of their time without improvement, and spend the day rather in any other entertainment than that which they might find among books.” Samuel Johnson
We must fight stagnation with all we have as it is not a state to be in. The first step out of stagnation is to discover if we are already stagnating. If we do not properly assess ourselves we might think we are okay when we actually need help.
“How do you know if you are stagnating? Here are some tell-tale signs:
If you have been experiencing chronic procrastination on your goals
If you don’t ever feel like doing anything
If you keep turning to sleep, eating, games, mindless activities and entertainment for comfort
If you know you should be doing something, but yet you keep avoiding it
If you have not achieved anything new or significant now relative to 1 month, 2 months or 3 months ago
If you have a deep sense of feeling that you are living under your potential.” Celestine Chua
Sometimes stagnation can be in just one or two areas of our lives. We might be active and proactive in certain areas and in some arrears we can be in the rut of stagnation. A person can have a vibrant family life but be stagnated in his career. Another person can be up and doing in his finances and be stagnated in his family life.
We must be careful not to get so used to the familiar lest we get into the stagnant pool of life.
“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.
Alan Cohen
and then