"It’s lonely at the top. 99% of people are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most competitive.”-Tim Ferriss
Most people will never be truly successful. The pull towards mediocrity is too strong.
"All around you is an environment that is trying to pull you down to Second-Class Street.” — David Schwartz
Most people will never escape the pull.
Much of the thinking around us is small-minded. Most people are overly concerned with “beating the other guy,” usually through manipulation and politics. As a result, they’re left fighting for scraps with the other 99%.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
A life of your deepest dreams — 100% financial independence, being your boss, travelling the world with your family, whatever — is available if you know where to start.
However, most people will never turn away from the safety and security of the crowd to realize this.
“All of us, more than we recognize, are products of the thinking around us. And much of this thinking is small.” -David Schwartz
Most People Are Not Willing to Fail
“We can be truly successful only at things we are willing to fail at.” — Mark Manson
Most people hate failure. They run from it.
In their eyes, if they suck at something, it means they suck. Since their self-worth is tied directly to their performance, any failure is proof they aren’t good enough.
However, this is precisely why they’ll stay in mediocrity. If a person is not willing to fail, they are not able to learn from their mistakes. If they never learn, they’ll never grow and develop into something more.
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” — Thomas J. Watson
If you’re not willing to fail, you guarantee you’ll stay average-at-best.
If you want to grow into a fantastic version of yourself, you must be willing to fail — a lot.
Failure brings humility. It develops your character. It helps you laugh at your mistakes and not take things so seriously. Like a plant placed from the shade into sunlight, your growth rate will accelerate 10x.
Anthony Moore's Story
When Anthony first started blogging; he was terrified of one thing in particular — negative feedback. He recalls to this day a comment from an early article that read, “This is the worst article I’ve ever read.” He was broken up about it for months.
After that, Moore made all his articles as vanilla and non-controversial as possible. Before he hit “publish,” he would ask himself: “No one could criticize this, right?”
Anthony was terrified of failure and rejection. As a result, his writing stayed mediocre and average for years until he finally started to embrace the possibility of failure.
“Don’t seek praise, seek criticism.” — Benjamin Hardy
If you embrace the possibility of failure; you open yourself up to enormous success you’ve never seen before.
“If I fail more than you, I win.” — Seth Godin
Photo by Brian Erickson on Unsplash
The Mediocre Majority Doesn’t Value Learning
“Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.” -Scott Adams
Most people would choose entertainment and distraction instead of learning and growing.
It’s not surprising. Learning is hard. Going to counselling, becoming a student of your craft, and continuously failing isn’t fun.
In the words of Hal Elrod:
“Repetition can be boring or tedious, which is why so few people ever master anything.”
This insight is excellent news for the rest of us.
Uber-successful entrepreneur Darren Hardy once remarked that he’s always glad when something is difficult because that means most people won’t ever do it. The competition will still be low.
Prioritizing learning and self-education may be new for you. However, know this:
- each day you read a book, millions of others do not
- every morning you woke up early to create and produce, millions of other people are still sleeping
- each day you kept going, millions of others quit
Ironically, the fiercest competition is for the second-class prizes.
Once you prioritize learning, you become aware of the 1% of genuinely life-changing opportunities. More importantly — these opportunities have incredibly less competition!
Most people will continue fighting for scraps with the “mediocre majority.” That’s a game you don’t want to win.
Instead, quit the game entirely. Leave the crowd. Choose learning and self-education instead of entertainment and distraction.
“Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning.” — Benjamin Hardy
Winners Act Like Winners Before They Become a Winner
“Winners act like winners before they become winners. That’s how they become winners.” — Bill Walsh
Deep down, most people don’t think they have what it takes to be extraordinary.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course — if you don’t believe you can, you surely won’t!
Moore blogged for four years and never got more than 200 subscribers. Looking back, he sees now that he never really believed that he could produce great writing.
In the past couple of months, Moore has gained more than 5,000 subscribers. This achievement was because he started to take his writing seriously — began to take himself seriously.
Moore began believing in himself and acting like a winner before he found any success.
So what did Anthony Moore do?
He bought a $500 writing course and started waking up at 6 A.M. every day to write. He spent hundreds of dollars on personal development books.
Moore treated himself like someone who knows they’re one of the best writers on the Internet.
“No one is ready for a thing until he believes he can acquire it.” -Napoleon Hill
Once you tell your mind what to do, it will make it happen.
Today, Moore's goal is to gain 100,000 email subscribers over six months.
He believed this could happen. As a result, his mind is always subconsciously finding solutions to make this happen.
Most people will never experience the surge of excitement after beginning to believe that enormous success is possible.
Winners act like winners before they become winners. They believe they can succeed, and their mind starts working on how to get there.
“If you want to live an exceptional and extraordinary life, you have to give up many of the things that are part of a normal one.” — Srinivas Rao
Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
You Seek Money and Titles, Not Experience and Transformation
“People are unhappy in large part because they are confused about what is valuable.” — William Irvine
When Moore was 23; he had was a little blog with fewer than fifty views a day. So, he joined an entrepreneur networking group.
He found the members to be intimidating. They wore suits and laughed at weird jokes and liked going to bars where a beer cost $11. They called themselves “Founders” and “CEO’s” and “Investors.”
So, he quit going after a few weeks.
Many great guys and girls in that group were kind and passionate. However, there were also many members who just liked talking about their title.
Titles don’t mean much anymore. Anyone can be an “expert” or a “CEO” of anything. If titles and money are what you chase, I guarantee you’ll reach the end of that road feeling empty and sad.
The most important goals you should have should be experiential learning and personal transformation.
If you’re always chasing success, it will continuously elude you.
“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” — Victor Frankl
However, if you always prioritize incredible personal transformation and paradigm-shifting experiences, success will gravitate towards you as if you were a magnet.
Memoirs of a Geisha is an incredibly sad story of a girl sold into slavery of pleasing men. The saddest part is that the young geisha doesn’t even realize she’s spending her whole life chasing the wrong thing: trying to make a man love her. She believed if she could perform well enough, the affections of this man would finally give her the healing and fulfillment she always wanted.
Most people spend their lives chasing the wrong things — money, sex, security, and recognition.
These won’t give you what you want.
Forget about titles and impressing others. Focus on becoming a person you are incredibly proud to be.
“Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development because success is something you attract by the person you become.” — Hal Elrod
You Spend More Time Being Jealous Than Working on Succeeding
“The time you spend being jealous of others’ success is the time they spent working. Guess which one is more valuable.” — Jon Westenberg
Every moment you spend being jealous is a moment wasted.
We don’t have much time in this world. The most successful and renowned individuals have often commented later in life how surprisingly fast it all went.
You don’t have time to be jealous.
If you always look to the actions of others, you rarely act like yourself. Your values and behaviour have a harder time aligning, making you unhappy and empty.
“Personal incongruency is what causes so much of our pain. Not being you will destroy you.” — Tim Denning
Instead of wasting away in mediocrity playing the comparison game, choose to spend that time working on yourself instead. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard on this topic was four simple words:
“Stay in your lane.”
It doesn’t matter how much faster they’re going. It doesn’t matter how much quicker you’re going. If you keep looking at other lanes, you’re going to crash.
Focus on you. Learn all you can. Experiment, fail, discover what works.
Soon, you’ll build momentum. Moreover, one day, you’ll look around you, and marvel at just how damn fast you’re going.
Cut out jealousy. Spend all your spare time learning and growing.
“If your lifestyle does not add to your healing, it will subtract from it.” — Benjamin Foley
Concluding Thoughts
“The moment you accept total responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life is the day you claim the power the change ANYTHING in your life.” — Hal Elrod
Most people will stay in mediocrity. They’ll continue fighting with the majority for average, subpar prizes.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The road that leads to an incredibly exciting, fulfilling life is waiting for you. It’s free and open, and there are no crowds.
Making the shift from ordinary life to an extraordinary life is one of the most exciting decisions you’ll ever make. The learning, growing, and development on this path will make you feel alive, more than you’ve ever felt.
- Choose success over mediocrity.
- Choose learning instead of entertainment.
- Choose personal growth instead of jealousy.
- Choose what you want, not what anyone else wants.
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