Inner Work

For the week of October 3, 2005

Overcoming Mediocrity

At times we may labor under a self-limiting feeling of being mediocre, of being not quite a failure but far from a success, of not being as good or as accomplished as others, of being resigned to a non-achieving life. Although this debilitating attitude can block us from moving forward, we can work instead to make it spur us on.

One aspect of that work is to examine the sources of our feeling of mediocrity. Is it deeply ingrained in us by a difficult childhood? Does it arise from failure to achieve our goals? Who defines success? Does our consumer-oriented culture define it for us, or do we define our life in our own terms? How do our tendencies toward laziness and procrastination interact with our feelings of mediocrity? What triggers our feelings of mediocrity? What role does comparing ourselves to others play?

Looking carefully at such questions can shed important light on our inner world and help prepare the way for the clouds of mediocrity to disperse.

Feelings of mediocrity can apply to our inner life, our spiritual work, as well as to our outer abilities and activities. With inner or spiritual mediocrity we feel that we are not able to practice or that our spiritual work is weak and ineffective. And this may have more than a grain of truth about it. With outwardly-oriented mediocrity we may see ourselves and our life in a negative light, feeling that we are weak and ineffective. In either case, we run the danger of capitulating, of giving up and giving in to suffer a life beneath our possibilities.

The prescription for overcoming mediocrity consists of finding one area to get right, one area to strive for excellence in, and to work diligently at that. Everyone has gifts and possibilities. We owe it to ourselves, and to the One who gave us those gifts, to develop and realize them. Outwardly we look to the productive pursuits that we enjoy or could be good at. Inwardly we look for a simple spiritual practice that we relate to, or a wasteful or destructive habit that is within our reach to stop. We choose one thing, one thing to which we bring the whole of ourselves, body, heart, and mind. We study it, we practice it, and we give it the time it requires. And in doing that one thing very well, we crack the monolith of mediocrity. And after we have fully settled in with that one thing, we follow up with our next step.

For this week, choose one thing to improve in yourself and act on that.

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