The 5 C’s Crippling Society

Most of what I do for a career would be entirely unnecessary if the modern world were more similar to what it was even a couple hundred years ago.

Human beings in developed, first-world societies are slowly dying from civilization.

When I say dying, I literally mean physically dying. Their biology is being slowly eroded by daily decisions that suck the vitality straight out of them like a leech.

But when I say dying, I also mean metaphorically. To live a life of fulfillment and meaning requires an extreme intentionality…even a rebellion of sorts.

Our primary function is now to consume whatever is being sold. We are plugged into the matrix and trained to accept whatever reality we’re being fed.

This doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a slow drift away from who each of us are actually meant to be. Often, we don’t even realize it’s happening until we look up and are somewhat horrified by the life we’re living or the person we’ve become.

Bummer.

But there’s a better way. And that way often starts with awareness of the problem, and acceptance that we’re suffering from it.

There’s a handful of culprits that are the primary contributors to this issue. They start small, and are often masked as harmless or even smart.

But over time, they sink their claws into us and bleed us out.

I call them the 5 C’s that will cripple your life:
‍Convenience. Comfort. Complacency. Comparison. Complaining.

Let me break them down. And more importantly, offer an alternative to each one.

1. Convenience

The Trap: We’re living in a world designed for ease. Click to order. Scroll to escape. Instant everything. But in our obsession with constant convenience, we’ve lost our tolerance for inconvenience, which the very thing that strengthens character.

The Consequence: Growth becomes something we “hope for” instead of pursue. We avoid anything that costs us time, effort, or friction. And slowly, we become soft in all the ways that make us incredibly weak.

The Cure: Conviction.
Live by values. Choose what’s right, not what’s easy. Conviction means doing the inconvenient thing on purpose because that decision is aligned with who you’ve already decided you want to be.

It’s setting the alarm, planning meals ahead of time, saying no to over-indulgence, making the hard call, and doing what is aligned even when no one’s watching.

2. Comfort

The Trap: Comfort feels good until it becomes the enemy of your potential. We avoid risk. We fear change. We pick what we know, even when it’s limiting us.

The Consequence: You end up stuck in a life you don’t love but are too numb to leave. You stop stretching. Stop challenging yourself. And slowly, you lose your edge.

The Cure: Challenge.
Deliberately pursue things that demand more of you. Lift heavy. Sign up for something scary. Learn something new. Speak the truth even when it’s awkward. Growth lives on the border of discomfort. If you want to be proud of your life, you have to go to battle with comfort.

3. Complacency

The Trap: You’re not failing, but you’re not growing either. You’re just… maintaining. There’s no fire. No hunger. You’ve mistaken “fine” for fulfillment.

The Consequence: You flatline. You slowly let go of the vision, passion, and dreams you once had. You drift into a version of yourself you never meant to become…tired, distracted, reactive.

The Cure: Curiosity.
Curiosity kills complacency. Ask again what excites you. Explore what you’ve ignored. Go learn from someone you admire. Test your assumptions. Chase questions. Get fascinated with what’s possible instead of just what’s familiar.

4. Comparison

The Trap: We constantly measure our worth by where we stand next to others. Their highlight reel becomes our scoreboard. And “enough” becomes a 4 letter word.

The Consequence: You’re never at rest, never satisfied. You don’t have any sense of self-confidence or self-esteem because you’re looking at everyone and everything besides yourself. You chase things that were never meant for you. You abandon your path trying to walk someone else’s.

The Cure: Contentment.
Be content, but not the passive, lazy kind. Contentment isn’t settling, it’s anchoring. It’s knowing who you are, what you value, and what you’re building, regardless of what others are doing. When you know your direction, someone else’s pace doesn’t threaten you.

5. Complaining

The Trap: Life feels hard, so we vent. And then we keep venting. Until our story is shaped more by what’s wrong than what’s possible.

The Consequence: Complaining is a magnet for powerlessness. It gives us a false sense of control without actually changing anything. And over time, it rewires us to see problems, not possibilities.

The Cure: Commitment.
Take extreme ownership (shout-out, Jocko). Everything you can control, you take full responsibility for. Everything you can’t, you face with maturity and release it. Commitment says: “This isn’t ideal, but here’s what I can do.” Stop venting and start leading.

There’s one outcome of all 5 of these Cs,

Weakness.

You don’t need to dream of becoming an elite athlete or top performer to justify not wanting to be weak.
My working theory is that no one wants to be weak. Being weak sucks, and it’s not a lack of desire for strength that keeps people weak.
It’s that somewhere along the way, they stopped believing they were worth being strong. They accepted a version of themselves that settles.
It starts by deciding you're worthy of it. Not someday, today.
Choose that identity. Then build a life that reflects it.

The 5 C’s are subtle and extremely automatic in our lives today.
If you don’t challenge them, they’ll quietly kill you (physically and metaphysically).

So I invite you, challenge you even, to do the following:

• Trade convenience for conviction
• Trade comfort for challenge
• Trade complacency for curiosity
• Trade comparison for contentment
• Trade complaining for commitment

This is how you pursue your potential.
This is how you build a life you love.
Not by chasing the path of least resistance, but by showing up for the better way.

—JP