If you don’t want to settle for mediocrity, in this episode we’re going to talk about mediocrity, what I think is its main cause, and how you can avoid it. This will help you have much more success in your pursuits.
I’ve read a lot about success and achieved it in several areas in life. I also spend a lot of time observing people, their mindset, their results, and how their mindset helps or hinders them.
After years of this, I’ve been able to deduce that there’s a universal reason that people get stuck in mediocrity. And that’s what we’re going to talk about here.
Why People Get Stuck in Mediocrity
When it comes to the reasons people are successful, you can argue about things like financial advantages, sheer luck or being in the right place at the right time. Yes, these are factors. But there is one key factor that governs whether we’ll experience success or failure, and we can all control it.
What’s that factor? It’s persistence. Your level of persistence is what governs your levels of success.
That’s it: persistence. That’s the key to avoiding mediocrity.
Why Persistence is the Key
What I see in people is that they simply do not remain with things for long enough to get good or achieve extraordinary results. Thus, they remain in mediocrity forever.
The cause goes far beyond notions of innate capability, which I don’t think really exists anyway. It’s just that they don’t stay with it for long enough. That is the issue.
I’ve written several articles about why persistence is crucial, but the best proof is your own successes and failures. Think back to various pursuits you’ve undertaken in your life, and you’ll likely realise that your level of success correlates directly with your level of persistence.
If you kept going, you got there. If you stopped, you fell short. It’s quite simple.
I see it in my own pursuits. When I’m half-hearted and only keep something up for a few weeks or months, I remain stuck in mediocrity. But when I keep going for years, eventually I get there. I become irresistible.
Notice I’m not saying that you’re inherently incapable of anything, or that you don’t have the requisite talent, or that you lack the resources, materials or teachers. Those are secondary factors.
Sure, if you live in the wilderness with no internet connection and with no people nearby, then that might be an issue. Or if you’re a homeless person who has zero money, addictions and health issues, then fine, that’s probably an impediment.
But for ordinary people, the issue of environment and setup is secondary. The core issue is that you just don’t stick with it for long enough. You’re not persistent enough.
You’re not reaching the levels in your pursuits that you could be, nor are you gaining the fulfillment and self-confidence that come when you achieve excellence. You’re stuck in mediocrity because of this issue here.
Examples When People Settle for Mediocrity
People Settle for Mediocrity in Language Learning
A very common example is language learning. A lot of people I know start out learning a language, creating a plan to get to a certain level in six months, and promising to study every day.
They tend to start full of enthusiasm, practice every day, and tell everyone about their progress. They keep to their new routine for a few weeks or months, but then, lo and behold, the initial enthusiasm wanes.
What happens is that the pursuit innocently fades into the dark. It just falls by the wayside with nobody realising how.
Often this doesn’t just happen once, but several times over the course of years. Over and over again, they have this idea of taking up the language that they’ve been trying to take up for many years.
They never build a consistent routine and never uphold one for long enough for it to take effect and make them successful. Their wheels spin round and round, and they remain stuck in the mud of mediocrity.
People Settle for Mediocrity in Meditation
I notice this problem in my meditation classes. You might wonder how this applies to meditation and spirituality; it may seem like an area where persistence isn’t so necessary.
Well, let’s take the perspective that the spiritual path is about skill building. Whatever spiritual practice you undertake, there is a journey of growth and change involved, so persistence is very necessary.
When I teach people meditation, the main problem I find is that people just do not stick with it for long enough. They come in all enthusiastic about learning it, but when it comes to meditating daily over the course of months and years, many seem to be incapable of it, no matter how much I emphasise it.
Interestingly, when people do stick with it for at least six months, you really start to see the difference in them. You can tell that they’re getting it, they’re changing as people, and that they’ve made tangible progress.
I try to instill this in all my students because I consider it an important part of being a teacher, whatever you’re teaching. I make it very clear that we must keep training consistently over the course of months and years.
The Problem with Persistence
This might sound like quite a simple problem. You might even be quite confused by its simplicity. How on earth can we be mediocre if the cause is simply a lack of sticktoitiveness?
I agree with you: it is a simple problem. We might even say it’s a stupid problem. And I think the main reason it’s so devastating is because when we’re trying to achieve something, we must do the work ourselves: nobody else can. Not only that, but the work is usually quite mundane, repetitive and grindy. That is the problem.
It’s much easier to sit and listen to people philosophise about how great language learning is than it is to sit and learn a language. It’s easier to read a book about meditation than it is to meditate. It’s easier to watch a documentary about exercise than it is to go to the gym.
Nobody can sit there on a Wednesday night after a long day at work and do what it takes start a business or learn a new skill, or anything else. No one can do it for you: you have to do it. And I believe when most people come face to face with the mundanity of excellence, they melt.
The Remedy for Mediocrity
The most baffling, confusing, fascinating, weird, frustrating, crazy thing about this issue is that it’s such a stupid reason to remain in mediocrity.
The remedy is so easy. It doesn’t require anything extraordinary or fancy. All you have to do is persist, all you have to do is keep going, all you have to do is stick with it, for God’s sake. That is all you need to do!
Whether you’re learning a language, want to get in shape, start a business, learn mathematics, or develop new skills, it doesn’t matter. The remedy is the same.
Any form of personal change, at any level, is fundamentally about learning. So you have to keep going. You simply have to: there is no substitute for just doing it over and over again, and for trusting in the power of this.
You must build a trust in persistence, in the fact that regardless of your fears, your limiting beliefs, your self-image, your supposed talent or lack thereof, you must trust that persistence will eradicate all that.
That is my message. I want to really encourage you to make persistence your focus. What matters is doing it over and over again, repeating, wanting, continuing no matter what, over the course of months and years.
If you don’t grasp this right now, you must trust me when I say that this is the difference between mediocrity and success in any pursuit.
There is no substitute for persistence. It cannot be supplanted by any other quality!
If one does not possess persistence, one does not achieve noteworthy success in any calling.
napoleon hill
You might like my video on avoiding mediocrity.
Follow Deep Psychology and join tens of thousands
of like-minded people today.
