I am having a Robert Frost moment.  

You know, one of those “two roads diverged in a wood, and I,  I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” type of moments.  However, in this case I find myself almost yearning for only two roads!  Not the 4 I must choose between.

Ever been there?

Of course you have.  We all have.  We all make choices every day that propel us towards greatness or cause us to shrink into mediocrity.

Ever been great?  Ever been the greatest?

Ever been mediocre?  Barely there? Unnoticeable?

The choice is ours of course.  Greatness.  Excellence…OR… Average. The good-but-nothing-special ordeal.  Here is my advice: When faced with a choice…choose greatness!  Choose that which you can be the greatest in the world at.  Deny mediocrity!  Make little decisions every day that propel you towards great endeavors and adventures and challenges.

Still not buying the choose greatness, being average is overrated plea?  Here is an in-your-face passage from Seth Godin’s book The Dip.  This book puts things into greater perspective, and, along with a lot of sincere prayer, helps make the decision making process that much simpler.

The next time you catch yourself being average when you feel like quitting, realize that you have only two good choices: Quit or be exceptional.  Average is for losers.

Am I being too harsh? Isn’t your time and your effort and your career and your reputation too valuable to squander on just being average?  Average feels safe, but it’s not.  It’s invisible.  It’s the last choice–the path of least resistance. The temptation to be average is just another kind of quitting…the kind to be avoided.  You deserve better than average.

-Seth Godin, The Dip

Think about it.  Help a lot of people.  Choose greatness.

1. TV news…turn it off.  The biggest killer of creativity is television.  
2. TV news…did I mention this one already?  If you want to know how to reinforce your brain with negativity, then pay attention to what is on the news or whatever program is on.  The media thrives on negativity. 
3. Book…so you have all of this free time with nothing to think about now that the news on TVis off?  Great.  Read something positive.  This will change you.

Remember, in order to see things that others do not normally see (being a visionary), you must do things differently.  And, in order to see and thus do things differently, you must have the time to think about seeing and doing things differently.  Do this by eliminating wasted time.  Throw out the come-home-from-wherever-and-watch-tv-mentality.

Tweak For The Weak:  It’s not that you’re lazy or apathetic or even a pushover (surely not me!) in the midst of the majority of situations, even the tough ones; it’s just that you’re not the absolute best in them.

Are you the worst at what you do?  ”NO, definitely not”, you say to yourself.  Are you below average when it comes to what you claim to do well?  ”Uhh well, I don’t know if I would say that”, you ponder within your mind. ARE YOU THE BEST AT WHAT YOU DO? “Well, maybe not the best”, you think to yourself as you quietly re-evaluate your own situation.  Tweaks For The Weak are weekly observations that can be implemented into anyone’s life (yes, especially mine) in order to become the best at whatever it is that you attempt to do.  If nothing else, let’s improve life together.

Tweak For The Weak #1:  This is an obvious one, yet for the majority, seemingly impossible to implement.

Join the 5am club. Get up early.  Spend time in the morning doing whatever it is you do in order to get your day started on the right track.  Drink your coffee and ponder.  Exercise.  Read a great book.  Pray.  Think on how you can have a more positive impact on the people and world around you, today.  Try it for a week, and please let me know how this tweak changed or didn’t change your life for this week.

I have been reading through several books as of late due to a decent amount of time that has been freed up to me in transitioning from a world of homework and late night study sessions into a world of 9am-5pm (and beyond) work days which casually (and painfully) allow me “freedom” to do with my evenings as I please.  Every book I have picked up and read through thus far has been quite amusing and enlightening at the same time, and my most recent journey into The 4-Hour Workweek has been more of the same and then some.  This afternoon’s reading, as my wife was away coaching little girls soccer practice, had to do directly with allowing boredom to become the norm.  Not only was it a warning that as we get older we lose our sense of adventure and excitement and settle into a life of routine normality, but we start settling for mediocrity in our dreams and goals.  We forget that the least amount of competition is actually for those who strive for lifestyles that only the rich and mega wealthy have obtained (not just talking wealthy in the monetary fashion here, wealth can also be created with time or having passion, exc).  Practically everyone settles for the average and thus, this is where the most competition is at.  At the average level.  

Today, and forever, trade in your realistic dreams for those that are unrealistic.  Stop settling.  Start a journey, a path of high intent, towards something specific that gets you more excited than you have ever been before in your life.  And then go do it.  GO!  Make a move.  Life is short.  Don’t wait till you are 65 to live a life that you believe will one day be great.  Live your life the way you want to live it right now, here, in the present time.  Ferriss goes on to say, and I paraphrase, that having big unrealistic dreams envigorates and excites the one setting them, from the inside out.  It brings a total adrenaline rush unlike any other thing.  To pursue something bigger than yourself is what excitement is all about.  Wow, Parke, why don’t you listen to yourself?  Today, I believe I will.