This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1602.

Mediocrity is an integrity problem by Cilan George of spiritual living for busypeople.com

and I'm Justin Mollick. Welcome to Optimal Living Daily or the OLD podcast where I read to you

from some of the best blogs I can find and get permission from.

And I'll keep the intro nice and short today so for now let's get right to it and start optimizing your life.

Mediocrity is an integrity problem by Cilan George of spiritual living for busypeople.com.

Do you feel like your life is mediocre? Maybe you're a bit confused about why you feel that way.

You've got the six-figure job, two and a half-model kids, a 3,500 square foot house with a two-carc

garage, a summer home, great school district, exotic vacations, social acceptance, and a steam.

On paper you have everything society told you would make you feel whole.

You're doing better than 90% of people on the entire planet but somehow you still feel like a

loser. So you buy a bigger house, trade in the cars for more luxurious ones, upgrade to the latest

computers and smartphones, work longer hours to gain a competitive edge for that promotion.

But you soon realize that having more doesn't make you feel better about yourself.

You feel completely lost because you don't even like the job you fought so hard for and the fancy

cars are training your bank account. A winner takes all world. Look it's totally understandable why

some people do all they can to not be average. Average is where mediocrity lives and who wants to

be mediocre. Besides there are many advantages afforded to those who can make it into the elite

class of people in our society. We may say things like what matters is that you be the best you

can be. But in our more honest moments what we really want is to be the best. We idealize the

former but human nature being what it is we crave the latter. In a winner takes all world,

being second best just doesn't cut it anymore. The average person knows who you say in bold is but

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