Mediocre.

1. of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad; barely adequate:

2. not satisfactory; poor; inferior

Mediocrity to me is like a curse word. Whenever I hear this word I can’t help but cringe and feel as though someone just uttered the “F-Bomb” around their 90 year old grandmother. It’s a word that you won’t hear me say often, and it definitely isn’t something that I would say in order to describe myself. Yet, throughout my daily interactions with people in life, I can’t help but notice the people that fall into the trap of mediocrity; and sometimes even embrace this lifestyle.

These are the people who just settle. They get up every morning, go through the daily motions of life, and then they go to sleep only to repeat the same cycle over and over again. It makes you wonder sometimes, what drives these people? What is their passion in life? Do they even have something they’re passionate about? Are they even truly happy with the way they live?

Why don’t you want to pursue excellence? Some excuses that I’ve heard have been something along the lines of blaming external factors in their life, claiming they are going to do things in life (but ultimately never do them) and maybe even just state that they are comfortable with their state of mediocrity.

1. You have the power to define yourself and how you act, not your external factors.

You may have been thrown into a crappy situation in life but you have the power to dictate how you are going to react to it. If you roll over and just let it consume you, how does that help or change anything?

2. Actions speak louder than words.

Hold yourself accountable, if you say you are going to do something…do it. Don’t keep pushing it off and then expect someone else to do it. You’d actually be surprised how much more people will rely on you when success may hang in the balance.

3. Don’t settle.

Every day when you wake up you should always strive to improve your self-being in one way or another, whether that be through physical or mental means.

It doesn’t help either that our society has embraced mediocrity as well. You’ll hear that someone forgot to do an assignment, or perhaps they failed a class that they needed in school. They just shrug their shoulders and move on. Their friends and peers don’t get down on them or even try to help them out, they ignore it and let their friend sink lower and lower into their mediocrity. On a larger scale, America itself has accepted mediocrity as it’s quality standard.

We hand out participation trophies to kids, students, and others for just showing up. We can have a basketball team annihilate the other team by 40 in a championship game, and everyone is going to get the same trophy that way no one’s feelings are going to get hurt.

We don’t award excellence any more. We award people by simply just being there physically, and not mentally. We don’t award them for putting in an effort, developing their talents or even growing as a human being. This is where we slowly start to embrace that dreaded curse word, mediocrity.

I’m not saying the way I live my life is absolutely perfect and every one should follow it, of course not. I have my faults in life, I make mistakes also. Humans are bound to screw up sometimes in their life, but I’m not going to let it define who I am as a person. I wake up every morning as it’s a new chapter, and I have my pen ready with ink to start writing the next few pages to my story.

When you pursue excellence, your whole life starts to change. You start to grow more confident in yourself, you are able to handle a lot more challenges in your life. People will begin to notice the changes you are making in life and that will help gravitate them towards you. Striving for excellence is what is going to get you ahead in life, and this can be for any institution. Whether it’s for school, the office or at home, pushing yourself every day will only improve your life.

It’s not easy, but reaping the benefits of success is so worthwhile, why wouldn’t you want to do it?

So, I say this to those who are stuck or refuse to leave their state of mediocrity:

Find something you’re passionate about, live for that passion every day. Don’t settle in life, improve yourself every day and continue to grow as a person. If you want something in life, work for it. Don’t just lay around and expect it to come to you or leech off of the success of others. When speaking of what you are wanting to do, don’t say “Well I think I can," or “Maybe we could do." Speak with confidence. Say that you WILL do this, we CAN accomplish this. Not only does this improve your confidence, but the morale of your group also benefits.

Don’t settle for that dreaded M-word. Live for success, live for improvement. Live to help yourself and this world become a better place.

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

-Arthur Conan Doyle