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Today's
Meditation:
There
is absolutely nothing wrong with being a "common
person," if that's what one wishes to be. Many
people don't feel the desire to excel, and they don't feel
the need to make something "more" of themselves. While
such a lifestyle isn't one that most of us wish to follow,
how can we criticize those who do wish to make that type
of life for themselves, if that's what they wish? In
such a lifestyle, they certainly avoid many of the
problems that other people face.
For
the rest of us, though, we do have a desire for
"excellence," however we choose to define
it. We have the desire to make something more of our
lives than we currently have or are, and we have a need to
achieve something that we see as special, something that
contributes to the world on a certain level. In
order to do this, we have to make demands on ourselves--we
have to work hard, we have to focus, we have to persist.
Culturally,
though, we all see the effects of "grade
inflation," which happens when someone who has done
mediocre work is told that the work is exceptional.
The "C" paper is given an "A," thus
rewarding average quality with the illusion of
excellence. We've blurred the line between
exceptional and normal, high quality and mediocre quality,
and sometimes it's hard to tell what truly is exceptional
and what isn't. Mediocre movies and books and songs
go to the top of the charts, while high quality work often
sells poorly.
All
we can do, though, is look at ourselves and ask one very
important question: If I want my work to be
exceptional, am I putting forth enough effort to make it
so? After all, our own work is the only work that we
have any control over, and if we want to avoid allowing
our lives to slip into "commonness," we have to
be willing to work to keep them up at the levels we wish
them to be at.
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