This is part of the “Dirty Dozen” series. Part 3 covered the word “Complacency” and today we will look at the word “Mediocrity.”
Dictionary definition: The quality or state of being mediocre
If you think about it, mediocrity has no set standards. When someone sets a higher standard in the marketplace for something, the rest of the people who are operating at a standard lower than this “higher standard” will be operating in mediocrity.
Plasma screen TVs made the earlier generation TVs mediocre
iPhone made the earlier cool phones mediocre
Kindle made the Sony reader mediocre
Nintendo Wii made a whole line of video games mediocre
You don’t typically choose to operate in mediocrity. You just end up there if you don’t strive to operate in setting higher standards in the marketplace.
The funny thing is that many people operating in mediocrity are doing so because they don’t want to “walk the extra mile.” However, just because there is an oversupply of people operating in this zone, there is a dog fight going on in this zone. In fact, traffic is smoother in the “extra mile” as there are less people in that zone.
Mediocrity is a silent killer be it in personal life or professional life.
Your life is a gift and it calls for a celebration. Living in mediocrity is simply not the way to celebrate it.
You can also listen to the audio here:
Note:
Illustration by Ming. Ming is the creator of the Fantasy Story webcomic. He is also a freelance illustrator, designer, painting instructor and occasional luxury car salesman. Ming is based in Penang, Malaysia. You can find him on twitter @Artmaker
This is part 3 of the “Dirty Dozen” series. In Part 2, we covered the word Status Quo. Today, we will look at the word “Complacency.”
Dictionary definition: The feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction of oneself or one’s achievements.
Complacency in simple terms is “resting on your laurels.“
Everyone knows that “past history is not an indicator of future success” but most people want to behave as if that’s not true.
Typically complacency steps in after a reasonably significant accomplishment. It is a way of telling to yourself that you now know “how it works” and you can “make it happen.” It might also indicate a sign of overconfidence
As they say, you are only as good as your last achievement, be it a deal (if you are a salesperson,) a company (if you are an entrepreneur) and a book (if you are an author.) As long as you are living, there is no finality in anything you do. It is the journey that counts.
Unfortunately, complacency takes the journey for granted. Complacency makes you think that since something has worked for you in the past, the same thing will work for you in the future. Complacency makes you think that the world owes success to you for your past efforts. Complacency makes you think you might have made it already and there is nothing more to learn. The extreme outcome of Complacency is Arrogance and that will finally make you fall.
OK, if complacency is something you should eliminate, what should you replace it with?
My answer: Hunger.
“Hunger” is important to make progress. Hunger is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Complacency is almost the opposite of hunger. If “hunger” is on one end of the spectrum, complacency is on the other end of the spectrum.
Go ahead and replace complacency with hunger and watch miracles happen.
You can also listen to the audio here:
Note:
Illustration by Ming. Ming is the creator of the Fantasy Story webcomic. He is also a freelance illustrator, designer, painting instructor and occasional luxury car salesman. Ming is based in Penang, Malaysia. You can find him on twitter @Artmaker
This is part 2 of the “Dirty Dozen” series. In part 1, we covered the word “Luck” and today we will look at the word “Status Quo.”
Dictionary definition of Status Quo: The existing state of affairs
I don’t know if it is a fascination with Newton’s first law or something, we are in love with “status quo.”
Think about it – When things are going good, you want things to stay the way they are. You are comfortable with the status quo and hope that you didn’t have to “change.”
However, you also know that the world is changing at a breathtaking speed. You see it almost everyday. Simple logic will reveal to you that even if you simply want to maintain the status quo, you need to change at least at the speed at which the world is changing.
But you don’t.
Most people are out of sync with reality mainly because they can’t maintain the speed of change that is REQUIRED. Unfortunately, maintaining status quo does not cause any problems in the short-term. Small deviations are not even noticeable. However, in the long run, this frequency mis-match starts creating trouble in your life, the gap is too big to fill.
In a way this is funny because looking back, when you were young, you didn’t like status quo. When you were a baby and were struggling to walk a few steps, you were persistent and did not give up until you were able to walk. Then running was a problem and you didn’t give up. In fact, when you were a kid, you were dying to grow up and wanted to get there fast. Change was welcome. Somewhere along the way, the need for change became very selective.
You were very much in favor of change that would give you “growth” when you were young. This was probably because with that kind of change, you would see progress almost every step of the way. Later in life, you started noticing that for you to see the benefits of the “change,” it would take a long time. You started hating that kind of change. Take for example – public speaking. Learning to speak in public takes a long time before you can reap rewards from it. There is probably no short-term reward that’s significant – so it’s get harder to motivate yourself to keep going. That’s when you start loving “status quo.”
Summary: Don’t let “status quo” hold you back!
You can also listen to the audio here:
Note:
Illustration by Ming. Ming is the creator of the Fantasy Story webcomic. He is also a freelance illustrator, designer, painting instructor and occasional luxury car salesman. Ming is based in Penang, Malaysia. You can find him on twitter @Artmaker
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This is part of the “Dirty Dozen” series. Part 3 covered the word “Complacency” and today we will look at the word “Mediocrity.”
Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow
This is part 3 of the “Dirty Dozen” series. In Part 2, we covered the word 