Each person has their version of mediocrity. Mediocre jobs. Mediocre relationships. Mediocre days. Mediocre weeks. Mediocre years. Mediocre lives. You might be stuck in a job you hate that doesn’t pay enough or you feel like you’re not living up to your potential. No matter how you look at it, you’re “stuck in the middle.” The truth? You don’t have to be there. Let’s look at some ways to take a life of mediocrity to the next level — to an extraordinary life.
Wake Up Earlier
Shift your wake-up time earlier even if you don’t have to get up. Most successful people rise early. Getting up earlier is the first step on your journey of doing something great and breaking out of mediocrity. It doesn’t matter whether you are an entrepreneur, a programmer, or a student. The earlier you get up, the more time you’ll have for everything else, and the more opportunities you’ll find to be productive and break out of a rut. You know what they say about the early bird and the worm.
Awakening earlier will give you a new perspective. Rise just before sunrise and watch the sun come up. It’ll set a positive tone for the whole day and optimize your internal biological clock. Make sure your early morning wake-up isn’t rude. Rather than awakening to the blare of a traditional alarm, invest in a dawn simulator alarm clock, one that gradually increases the light in your room, like a natural sunrise.
Be Open to Trying New Things
When you seek comfort and routine, it’s easy to fall into mediocrity. You become timid about trying new things because of the fear that someone will see you doing something wrong, and you’ll be humiliated. Ever tried speaking a different language? How about cooking? Painting or surfing? If not, it’s time to open yourself up to trying new things and developing new skills.
It’s not easy but it can help you succeed at work and life in general. The world has a peculiar way of rewarding those who step out of their comfort zone, who try things that others say can’t be done.
Network, Network, Network
Making friends with other people who motivate you to be better is a powerful way to incorporate more positivity into your daily life and to work toward a fulfilling and successful life and career. Associating with forward-thinking and positive people will help you change your perspective and see what’s possible for you to be.
Reach out to them and trust your gut to act on opportunities that come your way. You might find new answers to some of the questions you’ve been asking yourself lately.
Read at Least One Book Per Week
Reading books allows you to jump off to other worlds and experiences, beyond your own. They let you experience things you might never experience in a million lifetimes, and they do so in a few hundred pages. Through reading great books, your life is no longer mediocre but full of new ideas. Books can also inspire you to act in your own life.
Books are also portable, easy to hold, and you can read them in a variety of places — on a train, sitting on the beach, or anywhere else. Take advantage of the free time you have to read a book and open your mind. Whether you read about creativity, productivity, or self-development, you’ll learn new strategies for making your life more colorful, creative, successful, and less mediocre.
Get Your Health in Order
To be your best and live your best, you must optimize your health. Optimizing your health can help you lead your best life. The better you feel, the more you look forward to each day. The less pain and poor health you have, the more energy you have to do the things you love to do, and the easier it will be to break free of mediocrity. Take small steps to improve your health.
Start by focusing on the three pillars of health: food, fitness, and sleep. Then work on reducing stress, improving your mindset, and managing your time. An optimized life is a life well-lived. All these things are interconnected. And when they’re out of balance, they create more stress in your life — which leads to increased inflammation in your body and a higher risk of disease. And it all starts with taking care of yourself.
The Bottom Line
You may not be able to change your job situation or relationship all at once, but you have control over how you spend your time and energy. Acknowledge that you’re stuck in a life of mediocrity and start taking steps to break out of it and build an extraordinary life. Mediocrity is a way of thinking and living. Staying stuck will not help you become the greatest version of yourself.