I want to be better. I want you to be better. I want you to want me to be better.

There it is in its entirety. There ain’t no more. I want you to be better tomorrow. I want to be better 5 minutes from now. I want you to be better for reading this thing I write every week. I want you to want me to write something that will make you think, say, or be better.

I want all of us to stop embracing mediocrity. I want all of us to want better politicians, journalists, restaurants, coffee joints, hamburgers. I don’t care what side of the stripe you sit on the road…I want you to demand more honesty, more clarity, more truth, more excellence…everywhere, all the time. Not once in a while, not when it is convenient, and certainly not just when it serves your purpose.

Excellence is something we do daily, in everything we do. Excellence is a habit not a happenchance. Demand it and stop allowing mediocrity to pervade our daily life. Do I really need to have the same homogenous stuff as the other 100 million people here? Do we all need to eat at the same restaurants, shop at the same store, or drive the same car. Am I so insecure that I can only find validation when my “like quotient” hits a certain number?

You are special, you are unique. Your experiences and the meanings you have assigned to them are yours. You are not mediocre unless you choose to be. You can choose to be better. You can choose excellence. You can choose the path of individual effort and merit. I want you to be better. I want you to stop swimming in the mud puddle of public mimicry. Average is number best relegated to a math book and not an adjective assigned to you…a unique and special human.

Be better. Demand better from the world around you. Demand better from your friends, family, politicians, role models, sports heroes, celebrities, your world. Define better as integrity in word and deed. Define better as excellence of thought and intent. Define better as a constant and never-ending pursuit of improvement.

Be better. Expect better. Stop settling for something less than excellence.

Better now?

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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