Trading Mediocre For Personal Best

I’m just like the rest of you. Sometimes I find myself doing things that I don’t usually do for no other reason than I want a little mental and physical break. That happened the other night when I found myself channel surfing and came upon the reality TV show called The Biggest Loser. It’s a program that follows the journey of a group of significantly overweight people as they compete to lose weight and win some prize.

As I watched these people working out, many of whom weighed more than 300 pounds, I started to get a little uncomfortable. These people were really committed to their workout – they were giving it everything they had. I started thinking, “Wow. If these people can work this hard, I bet I could raise the bar for myself in my next workout.”

Crank things up

So in the morning as I hit the treadmill, I decided to start cranking it up. It was surprising how much room there was before I felt like that’s enough. It was one of the best workouts I’ve had in a long time. I guess I had let myself settle into a mediocre zone and hadn’t even realized it.

Mediocre feels comfortable. It lets you get by and gives you a false sense of accomplishment. Sure you’re doing it, but you’re not doing it nearly as well as you could. Sometimes the problem with being mediocre is that you aren’t even aware that’s where you are.

What part of your life has slipped into a mediocre zone?

Where are you just phoning it in or going through the motions?

How often are you using the “I’m too busy or tired” excuse to let yourself off the hook?

Being average is highly over-rated

It’s better to do fewer things well than a bunch of things half heartedly. If you’re going to live your ideal life, sometimes you have to get off the treadmill, take inventory and then crank things up.

I don’t usually find reality TV a good trade for my time and energy. But this time reality TV gave me a great reality check.