Aspirations of Mediocrity

Many folks refuse to step outside of the boxes their minds are caged in. Never questioning the rigid boundaries they've often been taught are valid and normal.

Without thinking of it, they will defend these boundaries as if their own life depended upon them, and the routines of mediocrity that are the result of these prisons they were trained to exist within.

The part that is disturbing, to me anyway, is how so many trapped in these ruts of mental stagnation yearn for more.

Yearn for more as they often cry in their pillows exhausted from the vast amount of energy their routines demand of them. And yet resigned that this is all life has to offer, as they dread facing another day of stepping back into the soul sucking routine that is killing their soul.

Shawshank Redemption

A great movie, if you've never seen it. A man is convicted for killing his wife and her lover and sentenced to life in prison. A crime of which he was innocent.

Using a small rock hammer, he spends many years slowly digging through the walls of that prison, till one day he is able to finally escape.

Now let's be blunt here, what made the movie special, as so many of this type are, is he refused to accept his circumstances.

So despite the toll of his normal routines and stresses that accompany being incarcerated, he took action to strive for something different.

He refused to do what the other inmates there were doing.

Refused to accept the routines and mindsets that result in aspirations of mediocrity.

It was just such a refusal that makes the movie so compelling. That transforms the normal person into the hero.

Folks are drawn to such movies as our hearts yearn to witness somewhere someone is refusing to accept these cages.

Somewhere, even if in fiction, another dared to fly high, challenging the powers that be that insist one know their place and not lift their head and look for more.

Can you see yourself as more than your routines?

Can you be like the hero in Shawshank, and dig deep within and find energy to dig through those walls no matter how tired you are after your day to day obligations?

I'm guessing if you are reading this that you definitely want more, and entertain the idea there is more than the routines and results you have been producing.

Seeing yourself as more than these thoughts will be the key to transformation. Understanding that you're not the mediocrity that you've produced, that those close to you demand from you.

Sadly most of those around us seek to keep us in those chains, which makes it even more difficult to break them. We don't want to upset those part of our pack. And they demand we stay chained to the personal history and reflections that make their own chains more palatable for them.

The fact is, you have to drop all of those chains. Begin seeing yourself as the hero in your thoughts. Seeing yourself as the doer of these actions that are foreign to what you've been taught so far. Of what you are used to doing.

It requires a lot of energy. Requires a stubbornness that refuses to allow initial failure and protestations of those closest to us to weigh us down and give up.

Understand the main thing that separated Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption from his fellow inmates were the possibilities he allowed himself to see for himself.

Imagine spending that first year in his shoes, digging that tunnel. And barely seeing any progress.

Toiling month after month with so little to show for it.

You get where this is going.

I wish all reading this the strength and tenacity to break free of whatever chains of mediocrity that has been installed within you. That you dig deep within yourselves and break free into excellence as the man in that fictional movie broke free of the prison he found himself in.

Thanks so much for reading.

Regards,

Jason