NO MEDIOCRITY

“But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something?”

-Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.”

-Andrew Carnegie

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves — to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.”   -Stewart B. Johnson

Years ago, I would look at copies of Oxygen magazine and think how cool it would be to have a body like a fitness model.  It was a dream back then.  A dream I honestly thought I could never achieve.  Then one day, after a ton of sweat and tears, I achieved that goal.   

One thing about fitness and bodybuilding is if you want results you have to work for them and work hard.  There are no shortcuts.  You must be dedicated and determined.  You must be disciplined.  And you cannot give up.  Yes, there will be times when you are tired and times when you just want to eat that piece of cake.  But, in order to get the results that you really want, you must have discipline.  You must strive for excellence.  There is no room of mediocrity.  Once I figured this out, my body began to change.

I began to ponder how these same principles could be applied to other aspects of life.  Some say that people are far too complacent.  I think that people are far too mediocre.  Complacency breeds mediocrity.  Why is it that many people settle for mediocrity in their lives?  We all have seen the bright student that does just enough to pass and settles for average.  Or the person that goes to work every day, does the bare minimum, and waits to collect their pay check.   And the politicians who do a lack luster job of representing our interests, yet we re-elect them anyway.  And for some reason this is acceptable.  Why?  

Why have we become satisfied with mediocrity? Are we mediocre because we are lazy? Are we mediocre because we are scared to strive for better?   Or have we just accepted the status quo hero in the United States?  Let’s be honest, even if you settle for less than your best in the United States, you can still have a pretty decent life. 

We have become satisfied with mediocrity not only of ourselves but of others.  We accept the bare minimum as if that’s as good as it will get.   We reward people for mediocre success.  We are a society of jealousy, low self-esteem, and depression.  And I often wonder if most of these ills could be irradiated if we operated at our highest capabilities.  

We criticize people who operate at a level of excellence.  We label them as “obsessed” or “nerds”.  Then when those same people achieve high levels of success and notoriety, we champion and idolize them.  Go figure.

Mediocrity is not good enough.  It’s not good enough in health and fitness and it’s not good in our jobs and relationships.  We are competing with other countries where excellence is priority.  When we settle for less than our best we set an example for our children that doing the bare minimum is ok.  And the greatest tragedy of mediocrity is that many of us will never know just how great we could be, because we don’t push ourselves to find out.

I challenge you to honestly ask yourself if you have given your all in your job, families and the like.  Where can you make improvements?  What goals have you set for yourself and have you made any real steps toward achieving them?  If you are in a career you don’t particularly enjoy, it is difficult to get motivated to be the best you can be.   If that is the case, what career will you find true happiness?  What career will motivate you to achieve excellence?  And once you figure that out, ask yourself what is stopping you from going after that career? 

My next blog on this subject will outline ways that one can go about avoiding mediocrity and achieve one’s goals.  I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!  Feel free to email me at kris@krisalisefit.com.