How the Attitude of Mediocrity Can Kill Your Growth

A study says that the number of people who are complacent with their mediocre skills and their learning aspirations is huge. On the other hand, there are people who firmly believe that any level of talent or skill is not enough in the highly competitive environment that is prevalent now. For these latter folks, even the sky is not the limit and they do not even consider age, qualifications, and other barriers as impediments. There are people who are in their eighties who keep studying and enhancing their knowledge levels. In this context, you should understand and realize that if you develop such an attitude, no one on this planet can stall your growth. Let us find out how the attitude of mediocrity can stunt your growth and how the attitude of not getting complacent can help in improving your growth trajectory.

1. It is true that mediocrity may make you comfortable. But it may take a toll on your growth regardless of whether you are running a business or in employment. If you believe that average or normal performance is enough for executing your tasks, you will be increasing the chances of your faltering along your way. This means that your output and performance will be below par. You may commit errors and mistakes as well. Therefore, you may have to repeat the tasks again and again. This may sap your energy as well as your enthusiasm. When your enthusiasm gets a beating, your output will again be much below satisfactory levels. In other words, this may become a vicious circle and so, getting out of this quagmire may become highly difficult for you.

2. If you continue nurturing your mediocrity mentality, it may negatively impact your health as well. Your stress level will increase. For example, if you are employed and if your output or performance is not to the satisfaction of your boss, he or she may ask you to repeat the tasks until he or she is satisfied. Unfortunately, you have always been in possession of the mediocrity mentality and hence, you yourself are not certain if you will be able to improve the quality of your output. This uncertainty coupled with the energy you spend for executing the tasks repeatedly will increase your stress level. It is a known fact that constant stress can lead to serious ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart-related health issues. 

3. Your attitude of mediocrity can rob your peace of mind at the home front. A home is a place where you can enjoy tranquility and peace of mind. But thanks to your mentality and mediocrity habits, you will adopt a cavalier and insouciant attitude towards your close relatives including your spouse and children. Remember that such a lack of concern for them will certainly annoy them and they are bound to get upset with your behaviors and habits. This may lead to avoidable arguments or tiffs within your family, the casualty being the tranquility at your home.

     

4. Another very important point to remember is that your mediocrity mentality will not allow you to utilize the opportunities available on the career front in an appropriate manner. Though every organization affords near-equal opportunities for its employees, it will not be a level-playing field for you because you have chosen a mediocre mentality. Those who believe in acquiring more and more skills and developing their knowledge will be able to move ahead of you and you will find yourself in an unenviable situation. 

The problem with your mediocre mentality is that if you are a team head, your attitude will deprive your team of great achievements also This is because you will either hesitate to make decisions or even if you dare to, you will perpetually make faulty ones. 

How to dispense with this mentality?

These are some of the disadvantages you are likely to encounter owing to your mediocrity mentality. You should, therefore, try and get rid of it. But you have to remember that you cannot achieve overnight success. By taking small and baby steps and achieving small successes, you can boost your confidence. 

You should remember another fact also. You cannot acquire skills in all the areas. Even if you try your best, there are bound to some areas in which you can never become an expert. In this context, it is better to recall a conversation between Bruce Lee, a Hong Kong-American martial arts instructor and philosopher, and another upcoming martial artist. This upcoming artist told Lee that however hard he tried, he could not lift his legs and use them as effectively as his peers did. To this, Lee replied that it was not necessary to acquire that skill, and instead, the artist could develop those skills in which he was strong.

You should apply the same analogy here and focus on your areas of strength and try to develop your expertise in them. You should not get complacent with average-level skills. You should learn to adroitly sidestep roadblocks along the way. You should work hard to become an expert in your strong areas. This will empower you to a great extent. You will be in a position to leverage your skills for achieving enormous success on the career front as well as in your life.  

  

Become Unstoppable in Achieving Your Career Goals

If you are one of those employees who aspire to achieve exponential success in their career, you must be ready and willing to upgrade yourself and your habits. Of course, you have to plan your course as well so that you will find it easy to move along that path. But is planning enough to achieve this movement? The answer is: No. Planning alone will not be enough; YOU SHOULD TAKE ACTION. If you keep on planning, you will not move even an inch and get closer to your destination. As they say, "A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step." In short, you should keep taking the required steps on a continuous basis until you reach your career goal. But what are these steps? Let us have a look.

Be wise while setting career goals

A number of people commit the mistake of setting goals without thinking even for a minute how they intend to achieve them. For example, if you aim to become the top executive of your company, you can achieve this aim in two ways. The first method is a step-by-step approach which means you have to move from your present level to the next one, then to the next one, and so on. The second method is to acquire so much capability that you become deserving and eligible for the top position. In short, while setting goals, you should have clarity as to how you intend to achieve them.

Kick away the distractions

Bruce Lee once said, "It is not daily increase, but daily decrease. Hack away the unessential." Distractions are the most unessential things in our lives. They can derail all the efforts you take for achieving your goals. They can sabotage your dreams and prevent them from getting translated into reality. Therefore, destroying distractions is very important. If you win over your temptation of excessive watching of television or spending your time on social media sites such as Whatsapp or Facebook, you will get a lot of time that you can use for making efforts to grow in your career.

Put in place personal rules

You are the one who sets your career goal. Your goal will not be the same as those of others. Therefore, you should put in place personal rules that suit you the best and that can get you success. But remember that you should consistently follow these rules. There should not be half-hearted efforts.

Success hates delays

Never postpone taking action on ideas that may lead you towards success. As the saying goes, "procrastination is the thief of time." Further, experts firmly advise against delaying actions on ideas. If you delay your action steps, there are chances of the circumstances undergoing drastic changes. You may lose interest and focus as well. Ultimately, you will not be able to achieve the career goal you are aiming at. By putting in place unique, personal plans that are best suited to you and following them meticulously, you will automatically put your plans to action. To be precise, your discipline will become an automatic habit.

Plant only those thoughts that are tuned to success

If you are aiming at great career goals but if you always nurture those thoughts that focus on how and why you may fail to achieve the goals, you will never be able to achieve them. Therefore, you should learn to remove unwanted thoughts from your mind and plant only those thoughts that are focused on your success. If you practice this step consistently, you can easily master this technique.  

Be ruthless while self-reflecting

You should be ruthlessly honest while doing self-reflection. Only then, you can identify the lacunae in your approach and do course correction. Otherwise, you will keep committing the same mistakes. You will ultimately not be able to achieve your goals. This may cause frustration and so, you may even decide to jettison your goals. 

Now, which is the best time to do self-reflection? Every day, before you retire for the day, you should recollect what all you did at your workplace. By reflecting on every task you carried out during the day, you will be able to know if the manner in which you did your work would help in fructifying your aim of growing in your career. This step will help you find the shortcomings, if any, in your approach also. You must immediately take action to correct yourself so that you will not commit the same mistakes again. The step will help you fast-track your career growth as well.