Mediocrity and Stupidity... BFF's?

"Only the mediocre are always at their best." --Jean Giraudoux, French writer and diplomat

Well, isn't that the truth? If there's one thing that's consistent it's that mediocre people always complain about what anyone with more perceived success is doing, saying, dreaming, and planning. Their laziness, whether physical or intellectual, hinders their ability to do anything even when it benefits them. They resent progress and improvement especially when it disproves their theory that whatever was done simply couldn't be done.

I am not by any means the most ambitious, diligent, driven, or disciplined person out there. On the contrary, I battle with my own laziness more often than I'd like to admit, but at least I know when I'm feeling and behaving like a bum. There's no one to blame for my failures and I can only hold myself accountable for them. With that being said, at least I have goals that I've set out to accomplish and have thought about how to make them happen. Even more importantly, I've put some of those plans into action. Taking action is key. You can dream all you want about what you'd do if you win the lotto, but if you never buy a ticket, you shouldn't be bewildered when you never win.

Mediocrity is like a highly infectious plague that spreads quickly and kills your desire to excel at anything. It creates contempt for success breeding stupidity and resentment towards those who have attempted to rise above their own mediocrity to do something meaningful and purposeful with their lives. Some people have mediocrity so deeply ingrained in their psyche that even when great opportunities to rise above their current station in life are presented to them, they find excuses to put it down or unconsciously find ways to destroy it to accomodate their own mediocrity and prove that they were in fact right about it to begin with.... and of course, it's never their own fault that they failed miserably.

The fact is that our society encourages mediocrity. If this wasn't true, then it wouldn't be tolerated and celebrated the way it is today. The best part is that the movers and shakers who make things happen are labeled as over-achievers, unreasonable, and unfair because they have expectations that simply don't jive well with the mediocre desire to sit around at home smoking weed and drinking beer while playing Call of Duty all day.

Here's the bottom line: if you're not willing to get your ass off the couch and make an effort to make good things happen in your life, then nothing will happen. I have learned an incredibly valuable lesson from observing mediocre people close to my life and understand now that attempting to reach out to assist someone with a garbage mentality will do nothing more than frustrate me and waste my valuable time. I will never offer business opportunities again to people who can't appreciate the work and sacrifices required to build a reputation and a brand and I will refrain from offering advice to people who are too lazy to even use common sense. Mediocre people deserve to be where they are in life and will never see any improvements until they choose to change their attitude, which is something they'll have to do all by themselves.