Personal pet peeve time. I hate mediocrity. It is not my desire to be mediocre. To race to the middle ground. The standard has been set too low and I wish to raise the bar.
It is frequently our acceptance of the status quo that helps us find mediocrity. And society will happily support you in your mediocrity. Instead of supporting personal integrity and self-discipline we’ve given way to self-importance and self-indulgence. Society will set aside calling you out on unhealthy habits so as not to ‘judge’ you. Culture will value your self-esteem over properly educating you.
Our society seems to have settled on the overall message that to encourage and support means to tell people that they don’t have to change. I think that’s an incredibly dangerous message. When it comes to health and fitness that kind of support will support us all the way to an early grave. Which means it’s not actually support at all.
The reality is that we benefit from support only when it’s the right kind! It’s been said that you are 3x more likely to achieve a goal if you have a strong support network. Don’t ignore that number. 3x more likely to improve your fitness translates to being less likely to experience heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and other life-altering emergencies and conditions later in life as the result of poor health and fitness! Tripling your chances at success is not a small thing.
So who do you choose as part of your support team? The people who actually want you to succeed and are willing to kick your butt or say the hard things you need to hear in order to help you get there. These are the people who will hold you accountable, actively check in on you, and whose taste in resources you trust if you need more help. These people will support your growth in the areas of personal integrity and self-discipline by being willing to say the things that hurt a bit so you can be the best you that you can be.
Society says don’t judge and tells people cruising towards cardiovascular disease that they are perfect the way they are. Is it judgment when your doctor tells you that you are obese and on your way to a heart attack? Absolutely not. Your doctor cares about your well-being enough to say you are carrying too much fat, that your diet is terrible, that you spend too much time sitting, and that you need to do better. They invest in educating you if they realize you’re struggling because you’re missing important information. Find more people like that! That is a powerful source of external energy to draw on to help you keep going when someone cares about you enough to hold you accountable in reaching your goals. It might hurt in the moment, but ultimately it leads to us feeling valued. And feeling valued can get us through some tough things. Like improving our health and fitness.
Goals must be set if we are to improve and advance as people. We must challenge ourselves and others. We are human and stumble and fall, but with every effort put in we have opportunity to gain ground, to move forward, to be better than we were before, together. And if you realize that people in your life are cheering you towards mediocrity maybe it’s time to stop giving them tickets to the game and relegate them to the parking lot for now. Fill your benches with people who actually want to see you win.
I want to help you set and reach your goals. I can be part of that support network. I’m willing to challenge you. I’m willing to say the things you may not want to hear. I’m willing to do that because I care about your health and wellness. And I care about you being able to say that you lived your life and didn’t just exist.
Check out my online coaching options from short-term support to ongoing fitness mentoring, assemble your support team (I hope I’m a part of it) and go Live.