While there is no formula that can be applied to every life to provide the key to certain success, regularly scanning for the Seven Deadly Sins of Mediocrity is the best method for staying on an upward trajectory. It’s not foolproof, however. It requires one additional element: drive. You can have the map, and there can be gas in the tank, but unless you’re willing to fire up the engine and put your foot on the gas, you’ll never get anywhere. Intention and theory don’t change the world; decisive action does.
As such, this final chapter is a “gut check” to challenge you to really consider where you are in your work, where you’d like to be, and how you’ll get there. What follows are some final thoughts on the nature of contribution to help you stay resolved to unleash your best work rather than settle.
What Does Life Expect of You?
To tap into your best work and to stay on a path of productive contribution over the long term you must commit to discovering that contribution by attaching yourself to an active mission. Rather than asking the question “What do I expect from life,” you must ask “What does life expect from me?”
Stop Trying to Be Great. Just Be Great.
The desire to be seen as great can be a paralyzing force. It’s something you can’t control. Measure your work by your daily progress on what matters to you, and leave the obsession with arbitrary scorecards to others.
Don’t Give In to the “Lag”
The lag is the gap between cause and effect. It’s the season between planting a seed and reaping a harvest. It’s the time when all the work you’ve done seems to have returned little to no visible reward, and there is little on the horizon to indicate that things are going to get better.
When you are in the lag, the only thing that keeps you moving forward are (a) confidence in your vision and ability to bring it to fruition, (b) a willingness to say no to other things that tempt you to divert from your course, and (c) daily, diligent, urgent progress.
Often, people give up during the lag and they subsequently fail to reap the reward for all their hard work. Don’t forget that there is always a delay between planting and harvesting.
Optimism vs. Wishful Thinking
There’s a vast difference between optimism and wishful thinking. One is a mind-set that expects progress through effort, and the other is nothing but a bulwark against the fear of failure.
Someone who is optimistic expects the best while actively working to bring it about. Wishing externalizes responsibility and hopes that everything lines up according to plan, but doesn’t do anything to actively bring about the desired change. Someone who operates from a place of wishful thinking is–in essence–a closet pessimist.
To have an opportunity to excel, you have to put in the time to develop a platform that provides the kind of opportunities you desire. If you are wishing for someone to hand them to you, you will be disappointed. Rather, you must be willing to proactively do work that has no definite return, but that is an investment in your future. This is how the optimist functions.
As a core part of this optimistic operating ethic, you must alter your mind-set to be about making a contribution, consistently and daily, with a keen eye on how you are leveraging your unique aptitudes to add value to the world around you.
Redefining Success (and Failure)
Our definition of failure defines us more than we may realize, because fear of failure is one of the most frequent sources of paralysis. When the perceived threat of potential consequence outweighs the perceived benefits of success, we stop acting.
Notice the word “perceived.” These consequences are often illusory, but in our mind they are as real as a tiger staring us down. The problem is that we can go for days, weeks, months, years, lifetimes without ever really getting to the bottom of this fear. The result is that we forfeit our best work.
Two things will paralyze our creativity faster than anything else:
- We haven’t defined success.
- We haven’t defined failure.
If we don’t have a clear definition of what we’re trying to do, we will spin out. Simultaneously, if we don’t have a clear definition of “missing the mark,” we will experience paralysis. The simple act of clarifying these two concepts can immediately yield courage for your work.
Problem Finding vs. Problem Solving
You must approach your work from the perspective of problem finding, and commit yourself to pouring everything you have into solving those issues. The future–your future–will be defined by those who choose to contribute more value than they consume.
Stay Off the Merry-Go-Round
When the right course of action is evident, we’re forced to make a choice between following our convictions or ignoring them. If we ignore our convictions enough times, we eventually lose our sense of self. We can no longer hear the inner voice prompting us that we are capable of more, and that we don’t have to succumb to mediocrity or settle for an unhealthy situation. Don’t defer important decisions. Act now.
Stay Out of the “Gray Zone”
You can spend many years in the gray zone, with the illusion that you’re contributing, but knowing deep down that you’re not really offering up your best effort. You’re doing enough to get by, but nothing better. You don’t have to settle. Respect yourself and your wok enough to spend yourself fully on worthy problems. Don’t allow complacency to rob you of years of engagement and fulfilling contribution.
Never commit to anything that you can’t give your all to. Hustle overcomes nearly every shortcoming. –Rich Seal
Don’t Hold Out on Us
Ultimately, your life will be measured by what you gave, not what you received. Don’t hold out on the rest of us–we need you to contribute. Spend your life building a body of work you will be proud of. Engage today with urgency and diligence. Plant seeds every day that will yield a harvest later. Tomorrow is only an unfulfilled wish, so live and work as if today is all you have. If you do, you will be able to lay your head down each night satisfied with your work, and in the end, you will die empty of regret, but full of satisfaction for a life well lived.
* Source: Die Empty by Todd Henry