Mediocrity

This text, by Branden Collinsworth, really resonated with me:

Mediocrity

Mediocrity is a thief with soft hands.
It doesn’t break down the door - it seeps in, unnoticed.

It makes its home in your smallest choices, slipping between your dreams and your excuses. It whispers: -"This is fine. This is enough."

It doesn’t demand; it seduces.
And before you know it, it's everywhere.

It's in the way you show up half-hearted, half-present, just skating by.

It's in your relationships, where love fades into obligation, where silence replaces effort, where connection is lost because trying feels like too much.

It's in your work, where ambition is dulled by routine, where you trade your fire for a paycheck and a to-do list.

It's in your health, where every skipped workout, every ignored promise, pulls you further from the strength you once swore you'd build.

Mediocrity is infectious. It spreads through culture like a slow poison.

It's in the way we praise busyness but avoid depth. It's in the distractions we cling to, the scrolling, the consuming, the endless numbing of our potential. We’ve made it normal - to settle, to coast, to be fine with "fine".

But mediocrity doesn't just live in individuals.
It breeds in communities, relationships, and systems.
It's the silent killer of greatness, the invisible force that keeps us small, that convinces us that trying harder isn’t worth the risk.

And here's the truth: Mediocrity is a lie. It tells you that safety is better than effort, that "good enough” is a badge of honor, that avoiding failure is the same as succeeding.

But it's not.
Mediocrity costs you more than any failure ever could.

It costs you the life you could have lived.
The dreams you buried because they felt too big.
The love you didn't fight for because it required too much.
The version of yourself you never got to meet because settling felt safer than rising.

Greatness doesn't come easy. It isn't packaged, polished, or convenient. It asks for sweat, focus, and the willingness to tear yourself open and rebuild. It asks you to stand in the fire when mediocrity offers you the shade.

And greatness?
It's not just for your career.

It’s in the way you show up for your people.
It's in the apology you give when it’s easier to stay silent.
It’s in the effort you pour into love, the moments you choose connection over convenience.
It's in the way you demand more from yourself so you can give more to the world.

Mediocrity doesn't just steal from you - it steals from everyone around you.
Your potential is not just your own; it’s a ripple that could change lives, if only you’d dare to rise.

This isn't about perfection.
It’s not about grinding until break.

It's about breaking free from the trap of just enough.
It's about showing up, fully alive, fully here, choosing discomfort over regret, effort over excuses.

The world doesn't need more mediocrity. It needs people who refuse to settle, who demand excellence in their love, their work, their lives. It needs people willing to rise, even when it’s hard and even when it hurts.

So burn the excuses.
Break the habits.

Push past the lie that safety is success.
The life you want; the person you were meant to be, is on the other side of "just enough".

Step into the fire. And don't look back.

~Branden Collinsworth
https://www.instagram.com/brandencollinsworth/p/DCTFhP-Pm4Z/?img_index=1