Reaching Your Maximum Potential Vs. Settling With Being Average

In the modern world we live in, we tend to measure our success by comparing ourselves to others. Whether it's about our ability to throw a football or the number of digits in our salary, we can't help but base our sense of success on how well we're doing in comparison to other people.

And while this may be beneficial in some cases (such as if you are as competitive as myself), it can be a really bad thing in most cases. You see, society today instills the idea that being average is good enough, and is what we should aim for - no matter how high our maximum potential could take us. We see the average level as the goal, and once we've reached that level, there is no need to climb any higher. As long as we're not worse than everyone else, everything is fine.

And I suppose that's a legit way of looking at life - If you're content with being another faceless nobody in the crowd, that is. If you want to amount to something and excel at life, however, you need to completely change the way you compare your own success to the masses.

 Not being bad does NOT equal being good

Most people are satisfied as long as they don't stand out from the masses in a bad way - so much so that they don't even care about standing out in a good way either. They believe that as long as they aren't worse than other people at something, they're good enough, and let it go.

This kind of thinking is great for the mindless worker drones of society. It keeps the masses in line, and makes sure they don't rise above their lot. But for those of us who aim higher, and want to achieve something of significance in life, this is a very dangerous way to think. It hinders any kind of advancement above the average level, and makes it so much more difficult to excel at something.

Only by realizing that being average is not the same as being good can we shed our lives of mediocrity, and reach for our full potential.

Always strive to improve

In order to stand out from the crowd, you must keep going even when you've climbed higher than most people. Simply thinking "But I'm already better at this than the others, there is no need for me to improve any further" will prevent you from reaching anywhere near your full potential. Sure, you might be slightly better than everyone else at something, but why settle for that if you could reach even higher? Why settle for being good, when you can be great?

Ask yourself if you're currently living up to your full potential, or if you've lowered your standards to fit in with the average level of the masses. Are you living life at your very best, or are you holding back your A-game?