Mastery Blog # 3 Pt. 1

 "It's remarkable how much mediocrity we live with, surrounding ourselves with daily reminders that the average is acceptable.  Our world suffers from terminal normality.  Take a moment to assess all of the things around you that encourage you to remain "average".  These things keep you powerless, unable to go beyond a "limit" you have arbitrarily set for yourself.  Take your first step towards mastery by removing everything in your environment that represents mediocrity, removing your arbitrary limits.  Try surrounding yourself with friends who ask more of you than you do.  Didn't some of your best teachers, your coaches, your parents expect more from you?"

        I chose this entire paragraph because it is all interconnected, and I couldn't find a way to break it apart in a way that would be meaningful.  

        In this day and age, we are constantly surrounding ourselves with mediocrity.  In fact, most of us carry it with us in our pockets.  It's our phones.  Sure, some of us maintain our businesses off of them, but most people have social media apps, games, and the internet to browse on.  We are inundated with information in the forms of news, but mostly, other people's lives; and the majority of it isn't even real.  What's worse is we compare ourselves and our lives to these fake people, and we attach our self worth to it.  I'm pretty sure most of you who are reading this have a cellphone, and that most of you are reading this blog on that device right now.  It has become the norm.  Our society has made it the norm, and like myself, most of us have allowed it.  Now, of course I'm not giving up my phone.  I conduct a good portion of my business with it, I keep in contact with friends and colleagues through it, it helps me navigate, and comes in handy if an emergency ever arises.  The phone itself isn't inherently evil, or mediocre; in fact it is a marvel of human engineering; but what we choose to do with it, that is where the mediocrity begins to seep in.

        A favorite show of mine is Doctor Who, the newer series; and the titular character, The Doctor, reiterates the fact that most people float through life unaware, and tend to forget things easily.   In the context of the show, it is usually alien invasions that people are blissfully unaware of, or that they tend to forget as time passes by, but in our lives, think of the amount of people you know that tend to float along, unaware of what is happening around them, or worse, what impact they are having around others.  With the constant stream of media and information, we tend to receive things in one ear and out the other, never stopping long enough to absorb.  This has become the norm.  Even with bigger newsworthy events, with enough time (less and less these days), even those major events become a distant memory that people forget, perhaps willfully.  Makes me rethink the "Where am I, and what am I doing?".  How many of us take that opportunity in our lives, in our training, in our careers, our relationships?  Or, are we all just taking for granted the time and experiences passing us by?

        We all tend to get stuck in a rut, or more accurately, we tend to stick ourselves in places of comfort.  Cause who likes change, or challenges?  Don't we all like the comfort of routine and familiarity?  I have a question on my intake form that asks "how many hours do you work, and do you enjoy it?", and the majority of people work 40-60 hours, and hate it, or don't like what they do.  That is crazy to me!  However, I get it.  A lot of the time the job pays well, and that helps them do the hobbies they like.  Still, there are a lot of people out there that are okay with that status quo, because it is what they know, and they are uncomfortably comfortable in that.  Most people want change, but very few are willing to make changes.  Kind of like our training, most of us want MASTERY, but very few of us are willing to do what it takes to become masters.

        I'm going to cap it here, so that you all can digest this section.  Part 2 to come later in the week.