Mediocrity

Welcome to today's issue of The Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine. The e-zine of Motivateme: Breaking the Procrastination Habit. http://www.motivateme.info. Have you signed up for your daily dose yet?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents."
Andrew Carnegie, 1835 - 1919
Scottish/American industrialist and philanthropist
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Being mediocre, means you do the same things as everyone else.  You’re not a leader nor do you want to be. You got good grades in school, but to get an A would have taken you away from your friends on MSN and the telephone. You don’t have a clue what you want to be when you grow up and that’s ok thanks very much.
Mediocre is mass market. You buy the same brands from the same place, because you’ve always done so. You’re happy to shop in the same place, go to the same holiday destination, you save up for 50 weeks in the year, so you can do the same things for the two weeks you are away – just in a different place.
Average is watching the same programs on the television, at the same time of the day, on the same day of the week. If it’s Thursday then it’s got to be Fish and Chips. Average is normal, average is wearing the same kinds of clothes, reading the same kinds of books by the same authors, whilst having your hair cut back into the same style you’ve had it in for the last 20 years.
Average is normal. Average is a habit. Average is a rut you’ve gotten yourself into and you can’t be bothered to climb out of. You’ve carved a niche out of the 360 degrees that exists around us and you are happy to wallow in your own small space. You don’t buy anything new and remarkable – you prefer the tried and tested of the mass marketed goods and services on offer on every street corner in the industrialised world.
Why are you happy to do the same things day in, day out? What are you scared of anyway? Are you scared of being noticed? Are you scared that if you choose to shop somewhere different the wheels will fall off your bandwagon? When did you become Mr Boring Average anyway? Who told you, you had to settle for average?

    What is the opposite of average? One of the words I would use is “remarkable”.

Believe it or not, you were remarkable once upon a time. Before the big people told you to be safe, be careful, don’t do that you’ll hurt yourself. You were willing to take risks (sometimes death defying risks). But every day was a remarkable adventure wasn’t it. Do you remember learning how to walk, ride a bicycle, read a book, climb the stairs, dare to kiss a girl (or boy), eat different foods? Of course not, you were too busy enjoying life to know that each of these new experiences were remarkable. But that’s what they were – we learnt so much in those first few years of life, that we were always buzzing. We didn’t want to go to bed because we were busy. We couldn’t wait to get up in the morning because who knew what the new day was going to bring. We enjoyed change. Of course our parents despaired they would ever get us to sit still long enough to eat or have a bath, let alone sleep for any length of time. They would get grouchy and tell us to be quiet they’re trying to watch the telly. So what did we do, we learned that being noisy was bad – we learned that being grown up meant being serious. We emulated the tall people in our lives and eventually we stopped jumping out of bed in the morning, because we knew there would be nothing new to look forward to. In short we grew up.
What would have happened if we had been encouraged to continue to be excited at the day’s prospects – there are some people on this earth who do exactly that! You may know some of them, heck you may be one of them. Then again – if you’re reading this website – then probably not…sorry.

    But you can kick off the shackles of average if you want to. You can stop being mediocre if you want to. You can do something remarkable today, you can be someone remarkable today – if you want to.

How?
Average is your comfortable zone. Average is where you don’t feel threatened. In order to do remarkable things, and be a remarkable person you have to be willing to try a few new things. You have to be willing to take risks again. Now I am not advocating that you take up hang gliding or ice skating – but it’s not a bad idea – who knows you might just get used to enjoying it. But you can make a few changes today that can profoundly impact on your life from here on in.
· Drive a different way to work tomorrow. Yes you may have found the safest, shortest way to and from your place to the place where you work – but so what.
· Turn the radio to a different channel. Better still turn it off and wind down the window, find some music from your dim and distant past and play it. Or if you still listen to the music from your dim and distant past – borrow some of your kids and play that instead. And then you’ll have something to talk to your kids about. And no I don’t mean – how on earth you can listen to that crap I don’t know. That’s not talking to, that’s talking at your children. Remember they will emulate you.
· Go to a different restaurant and try something other than fried meat and potatoes, or whatever it is you usually order.
· Go to the library and choose a book from an author you’ve never read before. Better still go to the Biography section and choose a book by someone who has led a remarkable life. Books rarely get written about the average person. Who would want to read it?
· Go into your wardrobe and find something you’ve not worn in six months or more, and wear it. Stop wearing your usual colours.
· Tell your partner that you love them. But tell them why. Better still, show them.
Change doesn’t have to be scary – it’s just something different that’s all. And you can stop living a mass market, average lifestyle and start living a remarkable “hand crafted” one instead. It’s truly remarkable when you do, because there’s not many people there.
------------------------------------------------------------------
I first wrote this in my online blog - Through the barrier - back in August this year - http://www.motivateme.info/through-the-barrier/2006/8/31/are-you-settling-for-average.html

but when I came across the quote from Carnegie I felt compelled to share it with you. I hope you enjoyed reading.
 --------------------------------------------------------
No Spamming or List Sharing - We do not share, nor give out, our subscription list to third parties.

All contents Copyright (c) 2006 Motivateme.info except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide.