Everyday, I'm posting a message on Twitter. That message will serve as the first (in bold) sentence for short written posts I have below.
Competing with those pursuing mediocrity only results in us being mediocre. Instead, we should be striving to be a better person than the one we were yesterday.
Often, we don’t focus on the bigger picture in life. We are too distracted by the small things like how we can outdo a classmate or a coworker at a certain task. The distractions often keep us too busy to realize that we aren’t really improving ourselves. We are actually neglecting our growth and the great potential we possess by aiming far too low in life.
Our standards in life and our goals for our future are usually limited within our comfort zone. The classmate and coworder we want to best most likely have similar limits as us. As a result, we don’t benefit from being slightly better than them because being slightly better than mediocre isn’t that different from mediocrity itself.
When we strive to be a better person than the one we were yesterday, we’ll see an incredible change. We constantly change our bad habits for good ones and notice more clearly our flaws. By adapting better habits and seeing our flaws, we can bring out the strengths we never thought we possessed. These strengths won’t appear if we are in the race of mediocrity.
We decide on what races we participate in life. We can choose the easier races where we have a chance of victory or we can choose the races where we are left in the dust. The harder the race, the more we’ll push ourselves to catch up. If we persevere through the races against overwhelming odds, a day will come when we find ourselves competing for the first place of those races.
_____
Participating in the races we will be left in the dust might be daunting but these races will show us how much we still can improve. We don't know how far to aim if we are stuck in the past.
We like to participate in races we know we stand a chance because we hate the prospect of being dead last. In life however, we must approach the races differently. We are all unique in our own way and we don’t normally know our strengths until we push ourselves past the limits we set for ourselves. Sadly, we won’t learn about those strengths if we remain in races within our comfort zone.
For too many of us, our comfort zone is the limit we set for ourselves. We are unwilling to step out of it because we fear what’s past the limits. We often terrify ourselves with scenarios and stories outside our comfort zone even when we have no evidence to back those up. The fear alone froze our steps as we approach the limit so we never take the first steps out.
Races that are well past our current capabilities will definitely force us out of our comfort zone. The fact that we are willing to face ridicule by taking part in races we don’t belong is already a first step to improving because our comfort zone demands that we care about the opinions of others and being dead last fill us with shame and embarrassment.
These races will also show us how little we know and how incapable we are. It’s such a large world out there and we are usually stuck in the past. We don’t want to break the norm we are so used to and want to compete in races we know from experience that we have a chance of winning. By letting go of the past and strive for the future, we will one day be competing for first place of the races we once finished dead last.
_____
Comfort zones lead to stagnation since we have no reason or room to grow. If we tread into the unknown, we must grow to survive and thrive in the unfamiliar territory.
Nobody can argue that comfort zones are nice as they make us feel safe and stress free. The only problem is that our world is constantly changing while our comfort zones remain the same. As a result, what was originally reassuring at one point in our life suddenly become a major challenge itself and we must make the decision to stay or leave.
Many teenagers live with their parents and have their own rooms. At the time, this was sufficient since the teenagers had his or her needs met by parents. However, these teenagers are in for a rude awakening when they become adults and must support themselves. For most of them, they no longer can simply stay in their room and hope their life needs are met.
With our world changing so rapidly as technology is growing at unprecedented rates, every single day can change dramatically compared to the previous day. We can no longer rely on comfort zones because it couldn’t possibly keep up with the changes of technology. Instead, we must venture out into the unknown to expand our comfort zone.
The larger our comfort zone, the better we are in adapting to different situations. Too often, we imagine ourselves as stepping out and leaving our comfort zone. We are really expanding the limits to include more of the unknown. The most successful people in the world are those whose comfort zone encompasses a lot of the unknown so no surprises really caught them unaware.
_____
Why should we explore the unknown? Everything we are seeking in life aren’t readily available to us because, in our familiar territory, they couldn’t exist.
We seek a lot of things we want in life whether if it’s a certain lifestyle or a certain object. Yet, we are hesitant to explore the unknown to find the things we seek. We like to believe that, if we wait long enough in our comfort zone, what we desire will eventually show up and knock on our door. Sadly, life doesn’t work that way and, despite knowing this, our fear of uncertainty freezes us in our tracks.
Imagine yourself being in your room. This has been your room for over a decade and you are much more familiar with it than any other person in this world. Despite the familiarity of this room, it cannot provide you many of the things you want and need. Chances are your room lacks the ability to produce the food you need to sustain your body and goods to make you a productive person.
To acquire food, you have to leave your home to go to a grocery. To buy goods, you have to go to a store that sells the specific goods. Nowadays, one might argue that, with the internet, we can accomplish these tasks without ever leaving our room. This is true with physical things but there are metaphysical things in life we cannot overlook.
For most of us, we don’t know about our purpose in life. We wonder what will make us feel fulfilled and these answers cannot be found in our room nor on the internet. These answers are out there in the unknowns where we have never tread before because we only seek the things that don’t exist in our comfort zone. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be spending time seeking them out.
_____
Technology is changing at a rapid rate and brings along lots of distractions. If we waste time on those distractions, we’ll never invest time on our hopes and dreams.
Technology has made our lives easier in many aspect but it also brought forward many distractions. YouTube and social media can easily eat up a lot of our free time in addition to time we could’ve spent on other tasks. Given how accessible these distractions are, we are fighting a tough battle to restrain ourselves from giving in to their temptation.
We need distractions when life simply isn’t going our way. Maybe we aren’t doing well at school or work. Maybe unhappy events happened recently and we must drown out the negative feelings like sorrow and anger. Maybe we don’t want to be reminded of our failures in life and the online world allows us to create a person we want to be.
Regardless of what reason we might have, we are still using up precious time that can be used in our pursuit of hopes and dreams. Hopes and dreams, as all of us have learned, don’t happen overnight and often not by luck. The hard work we must invest isn’t made possible if we don’t have the time to do so. Nowadays, we just seem to be swamped with things on our to do list.
Yet, we underestimate how much time we spend on distractions whether if it’s videos, social media or gaming. All of these are good if we do them in moderation. Many of us sadly lose track of time and spend far more time than we want. On YouTube, we might start with one video which leads to a dozen more. The time we waste here won’t be coming back and that hurts us in the end.
_____
We distract ourselves from our pain and struggles but, sadly, distractions don’t make them go away. We have to face our troubles head on to rid them for good.
A lot of us get into the habit of running away from our pain and struggles. Whenever we feel uncomfortable or negative, we seek out distractions in the form of entertainment like games and videos. While these distractions do make our problems go away temporarily, they won’t solve the issue and often allow the issue to grow into something worse.
As terrifying or overwhelming as it seems, we must be willing to face our troubles head on. There’s no other way as many of us discovered that running away only makes the situation worse. Eventually, our problems catch up to us but, like a snowball rolling downhill, it has become so large that it threatens to crush us this time.
For example, we might have broken something at home that’s valuable to one of our family members. Fearing to admit what we did, we choose to not say anything and just head to our room pretending that nothing has happened. The broken item was discovered shortly after and we decide to remain in our room and watch YouTube videos to forget about the issue.
Our other family members have had a bad day so far so, once accusations were thrown around, a large argument breaks out. If we have admitted what we did, this could be avoided. Instead, a lot of confusion and misunderstanding threatens to break apart the family. If we have admitted earlier, chances are it would go over far better than the whole family getting into a fight.
_____
We must overcome some struggles alone because nobody else can or are even willing to help us. These struggles are like the trials a protagonist face in a story.
We have faced situations where we cannot hope others will come to our aid. We have an exam we must complete alone or it’s a test of our ability to perform a task like running in PE class. We cannot always rely on others during those moments and, in life, those scenarios happen more and more often as we become adults.
As adults, we find ourselves in a cruel world where competition is how our society operates. Competition pushes us towards a dog eat dog world where we cannot help others without fearing for ourselves. For example, we choose to mentor a newcomer at our company but there’s a possibility that person later gets promoted above us.
Others might abandon us during our time of need because they either fear what we’ll become or they see no benefit in aiding us. Regardless of what the reason, we still must move forward alone. We haven’t reached this point in life without overcoming a number of big obstacles so we shouldn’t let the fact that we’re alone stop us from keep moving forward.
We simply need to see ourselves as the protagonist in a story and we face some trials alone. As readers, we cheer on the protagonist during those trials. Why not imagine that we have fans we are unaware of when we push forward? Just as a protagonist only grows and matures through trials, we will grow and mature through the struggles we face.
_____
Competing with those pursuing mediocrity only results in us being mediocre. Instead, we should be striving to be a better person than the one we were yesterday.
Often, we don’t focus on the bigger picture in life. We are too distracted by the small things like how we can outdo a classmate or a coworker at a certain task. The distractions often keep us too busy to realize that we aren’t really improving ourselves. We are actually neglecting our growth and the great potential we possess by aiming far too low in life.
Our standards in life and our goals for our future are usually limited within our comfort zone. The classmate and coworder we want to best most likely have similar limits as us. As a result, we don’t benefit from being slightly better than them because being slightly better than mediocre isn’t that different from mediocrity itself.
When we strive to be a better person than the one we were yesterday, we’ll see an incredible change. We constantly change our bad habits for good ones and notice more clearly our flaws. By adapting better habits and seeing our flaws, we can bring out the strengths we never thought we possessed. These strengths won’t appear if we are in the race of mediocrity.
We decide on what races we participate in life. We can choose the easier races where we have a chance of victory or we can choose the races where we are left in the dust. The harder the race, the more we’ll push ourselves to catch up. If we persevere through the races against overwhelming odds, a day will come when we find ourselves competing for the first place of those races.
_____
Participating in the races we will be left in the dust might be daunting but these races will show us how much we still can improve. We don't know how far to aim if we are stuck in the past.
We like to participate in races we know we stand a chance because we hate the prospect of being dead last. In life however, we must approach the races differently. We are all unique in our own way and we don’t normally know our strengths until we push ourselves past the limits we set for ourselves. Sadly, we won’t learn about those strengths if we remain in races within our comfort zone.
For too many of us, our comfort zone is the limit we set for ourselves. We are unwilling to step out of it because we fear what’s past the limits. We often terrify ourselves with scenarios and stories outside our comfort zone even when we have no evidence to back those up. The fear alone froze our steps as we approach the limit so we never take the first steps out.
Races that are well past our current capabilities will definitely force us out of our comfort zone. The fact that we are willing to face ridicule by taking part in races we don’t belong is already a first step to improving because our comfort zone demands that we care about the opinions of others and being dead last fill us with shame and embarrassment.
These races will also show us how little we know and how incapable we are. It’s such a large world out there and we are usually stuck in the past. We don’t want to break the norm we are so used to and want to compete in races we know from experience that we have a chance of winning. By letting go of the past and strive for the future, we will one day be competing for first place of the races we once finished dead last.
_____
Comfort zones lead to stagnation since we have no reason or room to grow. If we tread into the unknown, we must grow to survive and thrive in the unfamiliar territory.
Nobody can argue that comfort zones are nice as they make us feel safe and stress free. The only problem is that our world is constantly changing while our comfort zones remain the same. As a result, what was originally reassuring at one point in our life suddenly become a major challenge itself and we must make the decision to stay or leave.
Many teenagers live with their parents and have their own rooms. At the time, this was sufficient since the teenagers had his or her needs met by parents. However, these teenagers are in for a rude awakening when they become adults and must support themselves. For most of them, they no longer can simply stay in their room and hope their life needs are met.
With our world changing so rapidly as technology is growing at unprecedented rates, every single day can change dramatically compared to the previous day. We can no longer rely on comfort zones because it couldn’t possibly keep up with the changes of technology. Instead, we must venture out into the unknown to expand our comfort zone.
The larger our comfort zone, the better we are in adapting to different situations. Too often, we imagine ourselves as stepping out and leaving our comfort zone. We are really expanding the limits to include more of the unknown. The most successful people in the world are those whose comfort zone encompasses a lot of the unknown so no surprises really caught them unaware.
_____
Why should we explore the unknown? Everything we are seeking in life aren’t readily available to us because, in our familiar territory, they couldn’t exist.
We seek a lot of things we want in life whether if it’s a certain lifestyle or a certain object. Yet, we are hesitant to explore the unknown to find the things we seek. We like to believe that, if we wait long enough in our comfort zone, what we desire will eventually show up and knock on our door. Sadly, life doesn’t work that way and, despite knowing this, our fear of uncertainty freezes us in our tracks.
Imagine yourself being in your room. This has been your room for over a decade and you are much more familiar with it than any other person in this world. Despite the familiarity of this room, it cannot provide you many of the things you want and need. Chances are your room lacks the ability to produce the food you need to sustain your body and goods to make you a productive person.
To acquire food, you have to leave your home to go to a grocery. To buy goods, you have to go to a store that sells the specific goods. Nowadays, one might argue that, with the internet, we can accomplish these tasks without ever leaving our room. This is true with physical things but there are metaphysical things in life we cannot overlook.
For most of us, we don’t know about our purpose in life. We wonder what will make us feel fulfilled and these answers cannot be found in our room nor on the internet. These answers are out there in the unknowns where we have never tread before because we only seek the things that don’t exist in our comfort zone. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be spending time seeking them out.
_____
Technology is changing at a rapid rate and brings along lots of distractions. If we waste time on those distractions, we’ll never invest time on our hopes and dreams.
Technology has made our lives easier in many aspect but it also brought forward many distractions. YouTube and social media can easily eat up a lot of our free time in addition to time we could’ve spent on other tasks. Given how accessible these distractions are, we are fighting a tough battle to restrain ourselves from giving in to their temptation.
We need distractions when life simply isn’t going our way. Maybe we aren’t doing well at school or work. Maybe unhappy events happened recently and we must drown out the negative feelings like sorrow and anger. Maybe we don’t want to be reminded of our failures in life and the online world allows us to create a person we want to be.
Regardless of what reason we might have, we are still using up precious time that can be used in our pursuit of hopes and dreams. Hopes and dreams, as all of us have learned, don’t happen overnight and often not by luck. The hard work we must invest isn’t made possible if we don’t have the time to do so. Nowadays, we just seem to be swamped with things on our to do list.
Yet, we underestimate how much time we spend on distractions whether if it’s videos, social media or gaming. All of these are good if we do them in moderation. Many of us sadly lose track of time and spend far more time than we want. On YouTube, we might start with one video which leads to a dozen more. The time we waste here won’t be coming back and that hurts us in the end.
_____
We distract ourselves from our pain and struggles but, sadly, distractions don’t make them go away. We have to face our troubles head on to rid them for good.
A lot of us get into the habit of running away from our pain and struggles. Whenever we feel uncomfortable or negative, we seek out distractions in the form of entertainment like games and videos. While these distractions do make our problems go away temporarily, they won’t solve the issue and often allow the issue to grow into something worse.
As terrifying or overwhelming as it seems, we must be willing to face our troubles head on. There’s no other way as many of us discovered that running away only makes the situation worse. Eventually, our problems catch up to us but, like a snowball rolling downhill, it has become so large that it threatens to crush us this time.
For example, we might have broken something at home that’s valuable to one of our family members. Fearing to admit what we did, we choose to not say anything and just head to our room pretending that nothing has happened. The broken item was discovered shortly after and we decide to remain in our room and watch YouTube videos to forget about the issue.
Our other family members have had a bad day so far so, once accusations were thrown around, a large argument breaks out. If we have admitted what we did, this could be avoided. Instead, a lot of confusion and misunderstanding threatens to break apart the family. If we have admitted earlier, chances are it would go over far better than the whole family getting into a fight.
_____
We must overcome some struggles alone because nobody else can or are even willing to help us. These struggles are like the trials a protagonist face in a story.
We have faced situations where we cannot hope others will come to our aid. We have an exam we must complete alone or it’s a test of our ability to perform a task like running in PE class. We cannot always rely on others during those moments and, in life, those scenarios happen more and more often as we become adults.
As adults, we find ourselves in a cruel world where competition is how our society operates. Competition pushes us towards a dog eat dog world where we cannot help others without fearing for ourselves. For example, we choose to mentor a newcomer at our company but there’s a possibility that person later gets promoted above us.
Others might abandon us during our time of need because they either fear what we’ll become or they see no benefit in aiding us. Regardless of what the reason, we still must move forward alone. We haven’t reached this point in life without overcoming a number of big obstacles so we shouldn’t let the fact that we’re alone stop us from keep moving forward.
We simply need to see ourselves as the protagonist in a story and we face some trials alone. As readers, we cheer on the protagonist during those trials. Why not imagine that we have fans we are unaware of when we push forward? Just as a protagonist only grows and matures through trials, we will grow and mature through the struggles we face.
_____