When did it become desirable to be mediocre?

Be a student of your craft…

Since when is mediocrity the new gold standard? All-too-often I hear people start their sentences with, “Well, at least…(insert consolation prize here).” It seems that we have collectively lost our competitive spirit – the desire to be the best. When did we decide to give up? When did we decide that it’s okay to just be good enough? When did we decide to settle? Personally, I believe complacency is the number one killer of dreams. The greats are great because they found their passion and worked hard to perfect their crafts. Try finding a great author who is not an avid reader, a musician who doesn’t love and collect music, a strong CEO who doesn’t keep up with current trends, or a top athlete who doesn’t train. When I see a person miserable on the job or a child fighting for the chance to read, go to school or have clean drinking water, I’m reminded just how important it is to never settle. If you try your best, then the best is all you can do. However, if you say you tried your best to cover up a lack of effort, that's the mentality we need to change. Always strive for better.

How to be the best:

• Be a student of your craft. Read anything and everything you can. Study anything in your field and anything that may have an effect on it. Be well-rounded. Check out blogs, podcasts, YouTube, wherever you can get information, get it. Oh yeah, and don’t forget about PEOPLE. Have a conversation and learn something.
• If you’re good, spend time with somebody better, faster, stronger, etc.
• Take the next challenge. When you’ve mastered a certain level, step up. Rise to the occasion.
• Recruit a mentor. If you find an expert in the field, reach out to them and develop your skills.
• Never be too pleased with yourself. If you do something great, good. Now, do better.
• Practice, practice, practice.
• Never settle.

What do you think? Why is mediocrity praised? Where have we gone wrong? What are we doing right? What suggestions do you have to be the best?

Comments

[Ann]

I am discussing my opinion here and do include generalized statements:

As a teacher, I believe mediocrity is praised because it is any easy way out. People do not have to work as hard to receive praise and glory and therefore have become lazy. In education specifically, teachers and parents continue to make life "easier" for the student. It is a shame that a student does not have to take responsibility for their own work. Instead they say, "I did my best." or "I'll speak with the teacher and they will give me extra credit to raise my grade." What happened to working hard and realizing that teachers and other adults aren't always going to be there to help you!

I agree with your solutions to doing your best, but the problem is that so many people are not willing to do so. Children are becoming overmedicated in some situations because of this lackadaisical approach. Many teachers are willing to try to diagnose children with ADD or ADHD for an effortless behavior fix. They do not always want to work harder on their discipline guidelines and therefore want the kids to take a pill.

There is my soap box and I'm sticking to it!

[Michael B. Maine]

Thank you Ann for your insights. There are several issues that need to be addressed with regards to education, and you brought some of the important ones to light. We need more teachers like you, who care enough to push your students to exceed expectations and realize their true potentials. May we have more like you.

[erica howard]

first, thank you for bringing this up.

it is so many things that are all basically the same thing. we are saturated by societal structures and belief systems which attempt to stave off fear (the forward projection of a past experience in which our needs were not met and/or violated) through mass consumption. we believe that what we need to survive and flourish is not something that we possess within ourselves, but rather something that we must acquire from an outside source. and we stop believing in ourselves.

and it does start with the children. when they get an idea, how often do we let them try it? and how often do we project our own past experiences onto their potentials and cut-off their drive for self-reliance? we need to re-empower and invest in collective autonomy, accept personal responsibility for our personal welfare, whether it be in the classroom or in haiti, and encourage each other through the struggles because a struggle is a privilege to create your own experience.

does that make sense?

[Erica Navaira]

Although there are probably multiple reasons why people settle, I believe that the biggest culprit is probably fear of failure. For the person whose dreams and goals are exceptionally high, reaching for those goals and dreams can be a scary thing - especially if financial and/or personal sacrifice is involved. To add insult to injury, friends and family of someone with a difficult goal to reach might gently (and maybe unintentionally) push their loved one towards mediocrity to "save them" the potential loss of money, time, and self-esteem that might result from not reaching that goal. When someone advises a oved one to settle, they may not realize that their loved one might lose something more valuable than money or time by taking their advice. They would lose out on an opportunity to courageously pursue their passion. They would lose out on the potential to live the dream.

That being said, overcoming mediocrity might start with confronting not only our own fear of failure, but the fears of our friends and family. I think that overcoming the temptation to settle has to start with a defining moment where we decide that we are going to reach as high as we can knowing that there is a potential for failure, but accepting that accomplishing our goals is worth the risk. Saying this out loud to our friends and family is just as important as saying it out loud to ourselves.

Of course, we are complex beings and sometimes we might have multiple dreams/goals that are in conflict, in which case tough decisions have to be made. In that case, we may have to settle (just a little bit) for the sake of accomplishing the bigger dream. This is probably the most extreme sacrifice we might have to make to accomplish a goal. This is also probably the most permissible reason I can think of for settling on mediocrity.

[Michael B. Maine]

Thank both of you Erica and Erica for your comments. You both bring up valid points. My mother used to tell me all the time, "Don't be disappointed if you don't make it (or win, or whatever)." I know she wasn't trying to keep me from reaching my potential. She was trying keep me from being devastated if something didn't work out the way I wanted. Although I think being realistic is a good thing, I think both of you are right in that we need to be willing to risk failure to achieve things for which we have a true passion. If it's really worth having, it's worth working for.