Why moderation is the gateway to mediocrity.

I was scrolling through some shadowy subreddits yesterday evening when I stumbled across a quote from American author and lecturer Dan Millman; that really resonated with me and it

“Moderation? It's mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It's the devil's dilemma. It's neither doing nor not doing. It's the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It's for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die. Moderation...is lukewarm tea, the devil's own brew.”

People always speak of the value of balance and everything in moderation, but to excel (especially in our modern age) moderation needs to take a back seat to things like dedication, commitment and as cheesy as it sounds, passion. Moderation isn't rewarded in our current age, it's not celebrated and it's definitely not cool. The students who perform moderately well, don't get into Ivy League schools or get to study the degrees they want. Athletes who run/jump/swim moderately well, don't excel, don't make it on to our TV's and they certainly don't fill our sports stadiums.

We live in a world with a global population rising significantly faster than new jobs are created, this is further compounded by the fact that modern advancements and automation are making a large number of jobs obsolete. We can't act moderately and expect to succeed in a world of increasing competition.

I am not suggesting uncompromising hedonism and over-indulgence; merely that in order to succeed and be recognised and most importantly to live a notable life, you need to rise above moderation and mediocrity and aspire to a lot more.

Set yourself some ambitious goals, work a little longer and a little harder than everyone else and you will start to reap the rewards. We often (myself included) use moderation as an excuse to give up where we are comfortable, and we use sentences like "oh I've worked hard today, I don't need to bother with X or Y or Z".

To revert back to Dan Millman's quote and as a final thought to remember "Moderation...is lukewarm tea, the devil's own brew." Revolt against lukewarm tea!