You see it every day. Ask someone how they’re doing. The most common answer, “I’m doing OK”. OK? Just OK? Ask another individual how their sales, their relationships, or their progress towards a goal is going. Their typical reply, “I’m doing OK”. The fact is, most individuals aren’t shooting high enough, settle for mediocrity and are “OK” with where they are at in business and in life. They don’t put enough effort towards achieving huge results for a variety of reasons. It could be that they fear the hard work it takes. It could be that it is easier to stay where they are. It could be that it is uncomfortable to them to go out of their comfort zones or have a fear that is holding them back. It could be that they lack the proper outlook on life, or their company or even their industry. Or, it could be that they believe that they don’t belong at the top. Why don’t people that earn $30,000 apply for $100,000 jobs? They don’t believe they belong there or they believe that they can’t do it. It all comes down to belief. In result, they stall out in mediocrity. Now, here’s the problem with putting in medium effort or settling for mediocrity.
Your brain gets used to medium. When that happens, you build habits around medium. You get used to medium. Going past medium seems impossible. Then, you attract others into your life that are medium. Why? Because they see themselves like you. They are comfortable being medium and because they view you as the same, they’re comfortable with you. Ever hear of the phrase, “misery loves company?” We like when others make us feel comfortable with our situation. It’s easier. For those single people out there, it also applies to dating. If you believe you’re medium, you’ll attract medium people in that way as well. Medium effort or medium trying or medium caring is what you’ll get. The same is also true of hiring people.
Leaders are never the medium “guy”. Successful entrepreneurs aren’t medium. People that make big money are never medium.
And, once you’re medium, it will be difficult for you to make it to excellent because your beliefs, your actions and your activities are all, well, medium. It becomes very difficult to achieve big results when your habits are medium. As example, from a prospecting point of view, if you’re used to not reaching your new account goals, you believe no one wants to talk to you at this time of year, you’ll make it true. You’ll perform at substandard levels, not calling on enough new prospects, calling on them haphazardly or not at all. You’ve essentially become comfortable with not performing. Hard to believe, but we see it every single day. The sad part is, most will not realize they’ve sunken into complacency and may never figure it out, accepting their fate as a medium producer. Unfortunately, many of these people are truly good people, they simply cannot see what has happened to them. Someone once said, “A good man without action is just a good man”. So true.
So, it doesn’t matter if it’s work, friendships, business relationships, or even skipping stones. If you’re going to do something, do it the best you can. Care at an excellent level, not medium. It’s not about winning, it’s about laying your head on the pillow each night knowing you did your best, doing everything you can to be excellent. Work towards excellent every single day. Believe you belong there. Don’t allow “medium” effort or thinking to leak into your psyche. Build excellent habits, morning, daytime and evening. No president of anything, no successful person at anything did it any other way.
Never allow yourself to be medium. If you believe in a higher power, whatever your religion might be, and that you were given certain abilities, was the intention not to use those abilities to their fullest? You weren’t made to be medium. Instead, utilize the mind and body of excellent. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Go outside of your comfort zones until that becomes comfortable, then push yourself outside of that new comfort zone again. Learn to be unaffected by rejection. Learn to get over losses quickly. Understand what habits you’re treating as medium and raise your standards. Hang out with eagles and leave the turkeys behind. Adopt a new mindset that no longer accepts mediocrity and complacency. Change your thinking and create a new “you” in the process.
Personally, my biggest fear in life is to be sitting quietly with myself years from now and thinking, “I could have done better”. “I could have been more”. “I could have done a better job”. I don’t want you to say things like this to yourself, that’s why I’m telling you to push yourself now. You’ll regret it later if you don’t. This applies to everything from business growth, business and personal relationships and efforts towards anything that’s meaningful.
Shoot for excellence. It’s the only way to go.