You’ve never heard someone say they set out to be “average”, have you? We all want to be the best. We all want to offer the most popular products. We want the best show on the internet. We want to be the best player on the court.  We want the most hits on YouTube. It’s all about being the best.

So, why do we want to be the best; but, not always apply ourselves? We want to be the best player, but skip out on practice? We want to sing the best song, but see no need to practice an extra hour? I would postulate that here is the crux: “Wanting” to be the best takes very little energy. “Working” to be the best is hard. It takes perspiration, extra time, time away from fun, time away from friends and family. It turns out….mediocrity is easy. The good things take time.

 How can we be the best, every day?

Be passionate about what you are doing. Probably the most important step. Do something you love. Do something that brings out passion. Could possibly be the key to life in general. When you have passion, when you jump out of bed in the morning, then you are already rounding third. Why spend countless hours improving upon something that you really don’t like doing anyway? Why be the best at something that really doesn’t matter to you anyway. Passion comes when something matters to you. Passion is a driver of being the best.

Take the long road. The short road is paved with mediocrity. Our job is to understand the details, understand the impact to our sales, our company, our future. Then, make out a plan and do it. Taking shortcuts only results in failure. Or, even worse, short-term success makes us only take more shortcuts in the future. It’s not easy, but the road around “Easy Town” is long and winding.

Expect excellence from your team. If you expect it out of yourself, then the team should know there is no excuse for a lack of detail, a shortfall in execution, an excuse for not working as hard as the competition. Do not apologize for expecting excellence. All winners see excellence as the only choice.

We can always take the easy way out, and we can always perform in mediocrity. But why? Why would anyone settle for the middle, when that extra effort, that extra push, can catapult you above the rest of the crowd. Mediocrity is easy….the good things take time