By Shaun Fuentes
We live in a world where professionals, the people who show up and do the work, they punch the clock, cut through the fluff, and do the damn thing. Repetition after repetition, day in and day out, becoming more proficient, and efficient every day, by doing.
Proper sport athletes, businessmen, musicians, chefs, artists, medical practitioners among others relentlessly, religiously hone their craft, greasing their own groove, making automatic the fundamentals of their art, so that when they reach for a performance, they stand upon a firm foundation built by hours of practice.
We love those who all show up, do their homework, and understand the value of doing something well. Frequent, thoughtful practice in pursuit of mastery makes sense. Respect for history and tradition, and the great practitioners who came before us, these go hand in glove with most worthy undertakings. Question. How many are there to love around us right now?
“Good enough” cheapens the people who create it and the leaders who allow it." Seen that before? Here’s another one. “Mediocrity is a shameful pollutant that belittles by underestimating potential.”
It is said that seven reasons of mediocrity are Lousy leaders; Confusion regarding strengths on the team;Fear of failure.;Low expectations;Lack of focus;Insecure team members and Over-commitment.Take out your phone and type or write on a page for me which of these you aren't experiencing or witnessing on a basis that is too regular for our liking.
Don’t get me wrong. I love a celebration and I support people being praised or feted for proper achievements. And yes I know it’s not everyday we get to be winners. BUT! In today's society, everything is celebrated. Gone are the days where you have to be the best to win, or even really have to be exceptional to make the team. With participation trophies, medals and headlines being handed out to every athlete who steps on the field, and certificates being passed out like fruit cake around Christmas, our people are being left with nothing to strive for. Why try to achieve greatness when everyone tells you that you already are or that you are always making history.
Time to top seeing excuses in everything. If you didn't get into a final, didn’t place among the top three or even top five, it is not because you are a minority, or the conditions weren’t right and certainly not because of Covid anymore. Sure, prejudice is out there. But, maybe you didn't get it because you weren't good enough or you didn’t prepare enough. And let’s also stop using the reason of "small island or small country." By allowing young people to see everything as a direct insult, we are not holding them accountable.
You need failure in order to be successful. You need failure in order to be humble. Making mistakes and messing up is a part of being human, and sometimes it is the best part. Losing ever so often won't scar you for life; it will teach you to appreciate the things that you work your socks off for. A lot of times we need to accept we’ve failed and we need to let people know they have not succeeded.
When did it become okay to settle? Someone told me since the inception of Social Media. It is now the biggest comfort zone on the planet.
As a self-confessed optimist and committed servant, I’m honestly afraid of failure. I too also have room for better. My biggest fear is living a life that is ‘mediocre’ but also being among others who accept it too easily.But by whose standards are we measuring our failures? Society at large? The opinion of our friends? Our family? We need to take a good look at this and understand why accepting mediocrity is becoming more popular. Failures, mistakes and the ‘ugly’ parts of us are what give us our character. They’re what make us resilient and strong. It is part of the process of overcoming mediocrity. Because if we understand it then we would get to a point where we don’t want to keep feeling it.
Okay so maybe I came up in an era where there were such high levels of expectation and accountability on performance was a thing. No one wanted to know that becoming the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup in 2006 was beyond us because we didn't think we were good enough. We just had to get it done. And okay, maybe resources were more readily available and times have changed. But when one looks around and see others succeeding in so many other types of sport and with the same challenging conditions and stiff challenges, then you have to sit back and say how come?
They say "Exceptional is the result of reaching beyond current performance." Five questions to remarkable. What memory can you create? What will make you proud when this is over? What’s important about this? How can you improve your last performance? How can you honor hard work that produces remarkable results?
Time to confront mediocrity, courageously. “We can be better.” All of us. Adopt a “do your best now” and a “do better tomorrow” approach. #KickMediocrityOut
