It’s easy in life to accept the mediocre middle.
We’re taught from a young age that it’s all that’s REALLY expected of us.
While it’s great if you get a 4.0 GPA in school, you don’t need to. You certainly don’t need to if you want to graduate. And you don’t even need anywhere near that to get accepted to college.
Sure, some people get high grades. And some people go to top schools. But as long as you passed, society thinks you’re okay.
The old joke…
“What do you call the doctor who graduated at the bottom of the class from Harvard Medical School?”
…
…
…
Punchline please…
“Doctor.”
That is, to earn a reasonable living and be reasonably respected by the vast majority of the population in whatever it is you choose to do, you can simply get by.
And if all you wish for is a 2 cars, 2.4 kids, and a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, maybe that’s fine.
What if you want to change the world?
What if you want to dramatically impact one person’s life, making it better, and helping the next generation, and the next, and the next?
What if you want to help a million people solve some unmet need or challenge?
What if you want to create a solution to a problem that plagues a billion people on this planet?
Well, you don’t necessarily need a 4.0 GPA — nor do you even really need to succeed in school — but you can’t accept the mediocre middle.
Somewhere inside of you is a talent waiting to be tapped. Somewhere inside of you is an idea, an inspiration, a unique ability that positively impacts those who witness it.
It could be your smile. It could be your willingness to sit on the line in a soup kitchen on a holiday, serving the people who need to be served way more than your family (and your gusto with which you get friends and family to volunteer with you).
It could be your business-building ability, creating new value in the world, and the jobs required to fulfill on your value proposition.
It could be your scientific genius that you use to create new technologies that create new abundance in our world.
It could be your persuasive ability, that you use to move people to action — toward a product to better their lives, to a cause, to a movement.
It’s fine to accept mediocrity in some areas of your life — but you shouldn’t accept anything less than the best from yourself when it comes to applying your genius…
It’s not always easy to find. Some people’s genius is not recognized until late in life. Some is only exercised on the fringes of their life (nights and weekends), while they spend most of their day toiling away to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.
And some people die with their music still inside of them.
Why?
Unleashing your genius is uncomfortable.
Unleashing your genius almost always requires change. It requires sacrifice. It requires you to stand up and demand to be seen differently by those around you who love you for who you WERE (but not necessarily who you are becoming).
It requires you to take a risk — risking failure, AND risking success.
It requires you to accept that fact that your genius may not be recognized now, or even in this lifetime.
It requires you coming face-to-face with people who may not want to accept your genius, or who may directly reject you for it.
None of this is easy. None of this is comfortable.
Every time you stretch your capability, you’re unleashing a little bit of genius…
I don’t know exactly what it is you do. I don’t know what your work, your play, your hobbies, your passions are.
What I do know is that you have things in your life, in all the categories above, that require you to stretch. These are things you know you should do, things that represent unleashing your genius, that you also know could be a little uncomfortable.
Embrace the discomfort.
Take action. Say “YES” when the next opportunity arises — and be looking for that next opportunity, and actively creating it if need be.
Know that it won’t be comfortable. Know that exercising this genius within requires little changes to the “self” you know and love.
Sometimes these are smooth changes. Sometimes, emotional roller coasters.
Either way, if you embrace them, they represent opportunities for growth. Opportunities to reject the mediocre middle, and lead a life of ever-greater capability and contribution.
But that can only happen if you decide, today, to do what makes you uncomfortable…
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
