Leave mediocrity, be different, be irreplaceable!

Taking steps to being more proactive rather than stay in a state of mediocrity are forward movements which many of us do not take and/or may not even be aware that we need to take.

Existing as a mediocre is something I find terrifying and try not to be guilty of. It is really scary for me when I find that I have been in one place for longer than necessary as a result, I try to move a step each day. I think life is too good and too short for me to spend it in mediocrity. Life is a golden opportunity and we should use it as good as we can. Living in mediocrity means we do not use the opportunity as good as we should.

Being in one ‘position’ for a long time is not necessarily negative. But while you are in that same state, there should be some value being added to your life. It may be in the amount of experience you gain, or things, which could be measured similarly. It may even be learning to be more patient and tolerant. These virtues may be the elements you may greatly require for your next level of life. But where you are in one place and your intellect does not improve or is not being challenged, and everything else but the days going by, seem to be static, it robs off wrongly on you in the end.

In spite of these views which have been shared, many people are trapped in mediocrity. Amongst others, secondary school teacher, Mr. Abel Onyeche, believes that a major reason this is so is because people generally prefer to go with the norm and never dare to be different. “One needs to be different if one wants to exist above the average benchmark. At the beginning of every academic session, I pose very simple questions, which I also consider to be fundamental, to my students.

I ask them if they dare to be different. It is a question which some of them do not find easy to answer. But for me, when they eventually do, the way they answer but how you answer is how I know those who strive for excellence and those who are mediocres.

Another is for them to have aspirations and work towards achieving them. These may be in their head but I usually advice that they have it written down along with a realistic target by which they hope to achieve them. I do this because being a teacher for about twenty three years now, and teaching upper secondary classes, I notice many of the students basically just focus and strive for academic excellence rather than all round excellence. Some others just follow the bandwagon and don’t have a specific desire of their own. I say to them, if you have nothing to pursue why then do you think you will be different or try to be different?

“From my point of view,” Onyeche says, ‘a personal desire or goal is what sets a man above the average and the norm. And if you don’t have one, I dare say you are even worse than a mediocre because a mediocre may have a desire which he pursues to an extent and stops at that.”

It is not enough to have desires and targets. It is most important to have the courage and the will power to follow them through.

Another relevant angle to being different and staying on top of your game is doing what we enjoy doing. Eugenia Daudu sites an example. “In these days of austerity and lack of jobs, many young applicants when looking for jobs are looking for those with the fattest paycheque rather than the one which will offer them the most opportunity to be proactive, creative and grow.

“Many of them whom I come in contact with, I ask is this what you want because if it does not help you achieve your set goals, then you are in the wrong place and should be looking for an opportunity that will help you better yourself not just your bank account. If anyone can take such a stance, watch out he will excel in a very unique way. I have seen it happen.”

Another factor that hampers people from being what they ordinarily would love to be is the fact that they are trying and trying to meet other people’s expectations, be it those of their parents or peers. We often worry more about what other people say and think of us rather than what matters to us. Living someone else’s itinerary for your life is a bad way to live.

Generally, we prefer to stick with the safer decision than with the correct. “Many of us are scarred of taking risks and will simply tread the less harmful path. In some case this may pay off, but in many others, it’s not ended up too well,” said Mr. Ojo Egbunem.

In all, we can deduce that doing what matters to you is a sure way to excellence and staying above average. It is the only way we can be irreplaceable.