For one of my 101 Things, I have to read three literary classics. I’m currently reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and it just prompted a jarring realization. (If you haven’t read it and don’t want the ending spoiled, don’t click the hyperlink in the previous sentence. And don’t worry–I won’t give away any more than I have to in this post.)

If you’re not familiar with the book, I’ll give enough background for this post to make sense. An amateur inventor creates a time machine and takes a trip to the future. Humans have apparently evolved into small, frail, androgynous creatures (called the Eloi) who live a peaceful, leisurely existence. These creatures are childlike–they lack intelligence, curiosity, and creativity. The Time Traveller (he is never named) develops a theory as to why humans seem to have mentally devolved instead of advanced:

What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigor? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall… [In the Time Traveller’s own time, h]umanity had been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived… Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security, that restless energy that with us is strength [had] become weakness.

So the Time Traveller is saying that the reason that modern humans are intelligent, strong, inventive, and adaptable is that we have to be in order to improve our lives. We use technology, politics, art, science, philosophy, agriculture, etc. to alter our world and enable us to thrive. The Time Traveller postulates that, once humanity had achieved the pinnacle of technological advancement and social development, there was no further need for smart, creative, hardy humans, so they became soft and weak.

Makes sense, right? What’s so earth-shattering about that? Let me try to explain. Lately, I’ve been struggling with my writing. I find it too taxing after a long day of performing mental gymnastics at work to come home and be creative. Sounds reasonable enough.

BUT when I got out of the Navy at 22, I was waaaaay in debt from bad decisions and a messy divorce, I was uneducated (high school diploma), and I was really depressed. I refused to take money from my parents, so it was up to me to make my own way. I worked THREE jobs–a legal secretary during the day, a cocktail waitress at night, and a salesgirl on Saturdays & Sundays–to make ends meet. I ate peanut butter for weeks at a time. I worked my ass off (literally–I lost about 20 pounds in 2 months) and started taking classes at community college. How did I manage to do all that? I had no choice–that’s how.

After I got my Bachelor’s, I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I didn’t want to take out as many student loans as I had for undergrad, so I wanted to work full-time. I wanted to finish in two years, so I had to go to school full-time. So I worked 45 hours a week at a government agency, worked at a coffee shop on the weekends, and took a full load of classes. For two miserable years. Why? Because I had to.

Now, I’m totally financially secure (thanks mostly to my husband). I have a very comfortable life, and I don’t have to struggle for anything. I can pretty much have whatever I want with a minimum of effort (outside of the effort of working full-time). Much like Wells’ Eloi, comfort and security seem to have dulled my edge. I’ve lost the willingness to strive. Does that make sense? Achieving success has diminished some of the very qualities that made me successful.

I’m asking for your help now. What can I do to change this? How (short of quitting my job, which my husband and I agreed I won’t do right now) can I create an environment that requires enough struggle to inspire me to give my all without throwing away everything I’ve worked for?

Have you noticed this in your life? How do you combat the complacency that comes with success?