Day 321. Don’t Settle

MEDIOCRE. I abhor the word and everything it stands for: Moderate to inferior quality, not very good. Not satisfactory. Ordinary.

Certainly nothing to aspire to. At least as far as I’m concerned. But to some degree, we all settle for it everyday. Why am I bringing it up? Because of yesterday’s WordPress Daily Prompt: “If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?”

So yes. “Mediocre” would be my word.

Maybe you’re thinking it’s a bit of a strange choice. Maybe you’re wondering why I didn’t pick “hate”. Or “war”. Or “hunger”. Or “poverty”. Or “cancer”. Or “abuse”. Or “Kardashian”.

Well, just so you know, I did think of them. And several more. But I kept coming back to this one. To “mediocre”.

Here’s why. To me, mediocrity is a serious malaise. It can destroy our potential. As individuals. As corporations. As governments. As nations. Mediocrity is the opposite of everything the American dream stands for. Even worse, it’s insidious. It takes a while before you can see its effects. And by then it’s too late.

There’s another reason I chose it, though. An even better reason. Of all the words I could have picked instead, this is one we have the power to do something about. We can make it go away. We can ensure it doesn’t get the better of us. We can make