Funny story – I glanced at the quote I would be writing for the final quote post in the series, and read it completely different than what it actually said.
In my mind, it was the one that is regularly seen on social media – “Wherever you go, be all there”. and I was excited to write it, because Dad had a similar saying that has always resonated with me – “Wherever you go, there you are” – I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to run away from this absolutely insane life of mine, and his words always kept my feet planted firmly on the ground, navigating. After giving it some thought, I actually have already written of his wisdom though – Wherever you go, there you are – was written almost exactly seven years ago, on July 1st, 2018. Seven year ago me had some pretty profound thoughts, and I guess maybe I was excited to explore the topic again.
This quote is actually quite a bit different, though.
“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
How I got the other quote from this one is beyond me, but here we are.
I had a boss early in my working career that imparted some wisdom on me when I was particularly frustrated with my staff. “Amber, no one wakes up and thinks to themself, ‘I think I’m just going to be mediocre today.'” I mean, then it gave me some hope, it drove me to find the best in my employees and build on it. In reality, I think there are actually people that wake up determined to do the bare minimum, get their paycheck, and go home – but I am many years into my career now, and I may be the tiniest bit jaded.
I’ve never been that person, though. In any aspect of this life. Sure, I have those days when I’m like ya know, I’ve been kicking ass and taking names for awhile now, I think I deserve a day to rest. . . but they are few and far between. I never wake up with any intention other than to be my best – in my career, as a mother, sister, friend, writer – I don’t have it in me to be mediocre. I’m always striving to be better, to do better. If I achieve something, I’m on board to achieve the next thing, to take the next step.
I’ve never understood the mediocre mentality.
There are areas that I’ve settled in – when it made sense. A prime example is owning a home. It was ingrained in me early on that I should own my home, my car, etc. – I realized a few years ago that I don’t want to ever own a home, however. That was my dad’s dream. In all actuality, I don’t have the time to invest in learning to make repairs, and I don’t want the responsibility, and I definitely don’t want the financial burden. It made sense, for my father – he had the skills to fix anything that could possibly break on either a car or in a house. I do not. And while I have the aptitude to learn how to repair these things, and I have quite a bit of knowledge in home repair from my career, I don’t want to actually learn a trade of any sort. I guess settling isn’t exactly the right word, because in my head settling means doing something that you’d rather not do for a reason that makes no sense – It was more of a common sense decision in my particular case.
To make decisions based on what you truly want out of life is one thing. But to be mediocre? Out of the question.
And. . . What if I had actually decided to take the path of mediocrity?
Would my children be as amazing as they are? Definitely not. Would I have gotten as far in my career as I have? Not likely. Would I have broken cycles and climbed out of the holes I’ve found myself in? Probably not. I would be in the same place I was twenty years ago – I would have gone nowhere, achieved nothing. I would be living in the same cycle that my parents had been in, most likely.
I cringe to even think of myself in that place.
So I wake up every day, and work hard, and I am the best version of myself that I can be that day. Sometimes, the best version of myself one day is not the same as the next, but I wake up every day with a clear intention to do the best I can with what I have. I try and make sure that year by year, I am better off than I was the year prior. I can’t tell you the last time that I woke up in a new year without having made some sort of progress from the year prior – a better vehicle, more income, a promotion (or two, on more than one occasion). . . I don’t think I even know how to not make myself better day by day, year by year.
I go back to what I’ve said in previous posts – maybe living a quiet, unexciting life is for you. I don’t mean to bash mediocrity, necessarily. I just don’t see the point in it, and I know it doesn’t have a place in my life.
I don’t have time for things – or people – that don’t inspire me to be better. I don’t have time for mediocre relationships, friendships, jobs, experiences – any of it.
There have been instances where I was in a position to accept one of the above – it was always the safe route. I could have stayed in a relationship or friendship, at a job, done a thing that was less than exciting – because it existed, and it was easier to stay than to leave, easier to do what was expected, as opposed to what I wanted.
I’ll reiterate, yet again – if I had done any of that, I wouldn’t be where I am.
I have climbed, and I have fought, to be here. I didn’t do all of that work to settle for less than what I deserve, to stop climbing and stop fighting to be better and do better.
I’m here for fucking magic. To climb mountains, and to conquer.
If you don’t want to be a part of that, if you are content to live an unexciting, unmagical life, you have no business trying to be a part of my journey.
That’s pretty much all I have to say on the topic – whatever I do, wherever I go from here, please understand – I will give it my utmost effort, I will do it to the best of my ability, and I will continue to climb. This isn’t the end of what I can achieve in this life.
I did go through some drafts that I’ve written over the last couple of years and not finished for whatever reason. There’s some good shit there. I did a good job stringing some words together, and I think I’ll work on finishing and publishing those, next.
Until then – thank you for reading through these quote posts, and sharing in my writing journey. I wish the absolute best for you – sunshine, strength, and achievements galore.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
So, This is Real Life 