On the Average

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Chet Atkins, was born on this day in 1924. (died 2001).

Pretty much all our lives we’re told to reach for the stars. Whether it’s grades, or sports, or other achievements, we’re all told to do our best.

And then we foist it upon our kids.

As it should be.

I mean, we should all try to strive for excellence in what we do, right?

You can quote the Bible or Martin Luther King, Jr. to back that up.

Look up the quotes, it will do you good.

Sometimes it’s hard to do your best when you’re doing so many things.

We all know that, right? I mean the experts will tell us that you can’t successfully multi-task and produce quality work.

I usually read those articles whilst I’m doing quality work.

Mug Shots
(click the pic)

Still, concentrating on the task at hand and committing to work towards excellence in what we do often requires putting down the phone, or the Netflix, or…name your distraction.

That’s hard to do.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill. Article after article has disagreed with him in that regard.

Again, you can look them up whilst you’re multitasking.

A year is five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes…

I think this post may be illustrating Chet’s point, or somebody’s point. My cultural references are all over the place.

The post itself is multi-tasking.

So, maybe I’m not doing a very good job of focusing in on one point.

In full confession that’s a symptom of having too much to do and not being willing to accept mediocrity with any of it.

The struggle is real.

Let’s just listen to Chet. Nothing mediocre about this performance.


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