Your Battle with Mediocrity: How to Achieve Success?

Your Battle with Mediocrity

We are all battling with mediocrity and possessing an urge to know how to achieve success. In our lives, most of us have said in one form or another that ‘We want a big and successful life, along with overcoming the existing mediocrity in life. Well, let us understand the actual meaning of not settling with such feelings or similar thought processes. It can be hard to realize whether you are on your way to achieving success or having an average quality of life. In your daily life, you may be doing great, feeling satisfied, and getting things done. However, how do you know if you are actually on the path to becoming a master and achieving success or if you are accepting mediocre results because your standards are too low?

Always remember the quote by Dean Francis:

‘The difference between success and mediocrity is all in the way you think.’

Therefore, to fight mediocrity, one first needs to challenge himself or herself. Setting low standards for ourselves may bring us happiness, but not success at the end of the journey. We all see people around us who settle for any job that they stumble upon and find happiness and satisfaction in it. These are the ones who have not dealt with or fought mediocrity in their lives. Whereas the ones who leave aside everything and dare to take the risk of cracking the GATE or ESE examination have taken the first step to become pros in their chosen field of expertise. When you choose to stay in mediocrity, you choose to ignore your abilities and talents and let the opportunities vanish within the available time.

Before we begin on the core topic of the battle of mediocrity with the will to achieve success, let us get clear on some points that draw you towards mediocrity, and then we will talk about how to achieve success and accomplish your goals.

1. Work towards becoming a leader instead of a follower:

Most aspirants watch Topper’s Talk sessions and read Toppers’ interviews to get insight into their preparation strategy. Therefore, these interviews and videos are definitely a source of inspiration to keep you on track, thus boosting your confidence to prepare for the examination, but remember not to copy them. Put your best efforts into turning your habits as a follower into those of a leader. Build leadership skills and habits and create your own strategies, as you cannot succeed if you copy a successful individual’s habits, tips, and tricks. If you want a successful life, you need to create your own path and march ahead. You can refer to the winners’ guidance but do not follow in the footsteps of the respective winners blindly. It is because every individual’s preparation strategy and journey are unique.

2. Do not let distractions disturb you:

You must desire success in the field of your choice as much as you want to breathe and stay alive. No matter what you do in your life, always act as if you are already successful. Success is an instinct that we have turned into something complicated. Have you ever heard about the ‘Law of Attraction’? The law states that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into an individual’s life. This indicates that our thoughts determine the quality of our lives largely. Therefore, if you want success and positivity to come into your life, you will have to start thinking about them every day.

Therefore, right from the time you wake up to the time you go back to sleep, train your mind to intake and process only positive thoughts. Along with this, always believe that you will crack your respective exam and create the life you always wanted. Negative thinking will make you sad and distract you from your study sessions. Whenever you feel negative thoughts have just entered your mind, beat such thoughts with positive ones. You can start thinking about your achievements to date and the happiness you felt after you accomplished them. Avoid thinking about the reasons that will prevent you from cracking the GATE 2024 and ESE examinations. Such a mindset will definitely help you in the long term.

3. Ditch jealousy and comparison:

Comparison and jealousy tend to breed negativity. Therefore, do not study, prepare, or dream of cracking the GATE or ESE examination because a family member or neighbor prepared it or passed it. Do something that boosts the passion existing in you and brings you the desired results. Doing a particular activity for the sake of competition will fetch you a mediocre life and make you wonder why this happened to you.

“Mediocrity is the tribute jealousy pays to genius.”

Before you start your preparation, list out the reasons why you want to give this particular examination and how cracking it will change your life for the better. Accordingly, you can carve your path and get an answer to how to achieve success. If this list inspires or motivates you to start the journey of preparation, start it right at that time. You need to make sure that whenever you feel demotivated, you look at the list and make yourself understand it well. If required, you can take mini-breaks to re-energize yourself and get ahead. After this, you will be ready to get back on track to achieve your GATE and ESE examination-related goals.

Therefore, to beat mediocrity, you need to follow the three golden principles listed above. Sit down and make a list of why you want to crack the exam and how to achieve success in the exam. In this process, you will find that your self-confidence and ability to make decisions evolve for the better. In the end, you will find yourself marching on the path of success for the best results. You must understand that you need to ditch things and distance yourself from individuals in your network who tend to distract you and keep you away from your goals.

Always remember and tell yourself – I did not wake up to become mediocre.

Keeping that thought in mind, let us now discuss what you need to do to battle mediocrity and how to achieve success.

1. Take risks irrespective of others’ opinions:

A life without risks is definitely a safe one. You can pay your regular bills and rent with a life in which you have a secure job right after your graduation. You can take the available placements in your final year and secure yourself instead of thinking about how to achieve success. However, at the same time, it leads to increased boredom and drags you into the mediocrity mindset. To escape this mediocrity, take advantage of every moment of your life whenever you feel you can do something productive with it. Right from childhood, most parents received training to play safely whenever possible. Therefore, it is a natural tendency to settle for something comfortable, which might be much less than what one deserves in his life.

Put in your best efforts to wake up the little kid in yourself who was not scared to take the first step with the fear that it may fall. Start taking risks after proper analysis to achieve a goal, as it requires courage to face the fear of uncertainty that exists throughout the journey. No matter what the outcome, we grow through the process and become more resilient and confident. Better yet, building those skills helps one take more risks, thus improving one’s chances of achieving one’s future goals.

2. Embrace Harshness:

Always remember that nothing good in life comes for free. Amidst all the praise and compliments, you need to embrace the harshness with the required positivity. It is an activity that helps to keep mediocrity away, and even if you are dealing with mediocrity, you can remove it much more easily with the right mindset and actions. While compliments increase your confidence, such harsh comments help you grow enormously in the future. You must be thankful that certain people did such things to pull you down. It made you want to rise during the preparation phase as per your preparation strategy. You need to remember that if certain people are talking badly about you and creating difficulties for you, then you must understand that you are doing it right and progressing to achieve your crucial goals.

Do you remember Copernicus, when he said that the earth revolved around the sun and the church, and all the people around him tagged him as a loser and a crazy man? However, think about who we remember today: Copernicus or the Pope of the Church who exiled him? I hope you got your answer right.

Therefore, instead of running away and arguing with the friend who teases you or the aunt who thinks you are a loser, just wake up and take one step at a time to crack the ESE examination or GATE exam, live your dream, and prove them wrong. Someone has rightly said that actions speak louder than words. Therefore, embrace all negative comments, let your actions prove you right, and create your destiny. You too will see yourself giving a topper’s talk if you stick with your will and efforts to achieve it.

3. Acknowledge Failures and Roadblocks:

One tends to become a better version after he fails, recovers, and improves after learning the respective lessons. Therefore, make sure the failures and roadblocks that you face do not discourage you, but you turn them into stepping stones for your path to achieve success. It is rare to see someone succeed in their respective field without failing or stumbling at least once in the journey. Therefore, if you are a GATE, ESE, SES, or other government exam aspirant, you need to understand that failures and roadblocks are bound to come, but you need to have confidence in your preparation strategy until you beat mediocrity and achieve the desired success.

Small failures like not being able to crack the exam on the first attempt, and not being able to score well in test series can discourage these exam aspirants. In the case of most aspirants, it becomes difficult for them to perform well in this exam as well. Try one exercise when you feel low or dull due to any short-term failures. Sit down in a quiet place and visualize that 10 years down the line, you have your dream job or business with a healthy and peaceful family. Will such failures matter to you at that time? No, isn’t it? Therefore, you need to ensure that you do not have to sit and compare yourself with other aspirants and their study routines or attempts. You must ensure that you work on your efforts toward your preparation strategy and the respective phase. You need to remind yourself that it is a phase that will pass soon.

4. Be the best of who you are

Lots of people try to copy other famous people, but as mentioned earlier, do not try to live someone else’s life. Be the best version of yourself. Douglas Malloch wrote the poem “You Can Be the Best of Whatever” You Are, where he very nicely writes the following, which is a part of the complete poem.

We can’t all be captains; we’ve got to be crew.
There’s something for all of us here.
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser work to do.
And the task you must do is near.

If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail.
If you can’t be the sun, be a star.
It isn’t by size that you win or fail.
Be the best of whatever you are!

You must always remember one point: success is not only about being famous and having money. It is all about doing your best in the respective activity. Therefore, while preparing for the GATE and ESE examinations as well, you need to make sure that you give your best during the preparation phase and take it seriously. Right from the day you start your engineering competitive exam preparation with a determined preparation strategy, you must determine your long-term goals properly. Do not wait for the examination date and put in your best efforts to prepare, revise, and practice diligently. In this way, you can succeed in beating mediocrity and achieving success.

5. Be Consistent and Stay Focused:

Consistent action creates the best results. Consistency and focus are the two factors that every student needs to excel in life. Examinations such as GATE and ESE are some of the toughest in the country. The only key to cracking these competitive exams is building and maintaining consistency and focus. It is important to understand that one remains focused on studies with the help of a study schedule, exam pattern, and available time, right from the day you start to implement your preparation strategy for your actual exam preparation. You must replace your random long study sessions with consistently shorter study sessions for the best results and less stress.

To stay focused, you must have a plan of action for each day until the exam is completed. Therefore, before going off to sleep or right after waking up, make sure to plan the entire day in the morning itself. When you have a target to crack GATE 2024 and ESE 2024, you have to stay focused on your goals and be consistent with your plans in the best possible way to get the maximum outcome from your efforts. Apart from this, you must stay away from any distractions and do not forget to take breaks between your study hours. Success is the sum of tiny efforts that one repeats day in and day out throughout the respective exam’s preparation phase.

We have talked a lot about how to battle mediocrity, but we tend to forget that it is an attitude and lifestyle choice that compels you to do the minimum acceptable amount of work. You choose not to take risks, not to discover yourself, not to try, not to mess up, and not to wake up. Due to this, you are unable to contribute positively to the world. Each one of us possesses unique skills and qualities. Such aspects can make a real difference, but most individuals want to keep life easy without hardships and choose not to move beyond their comfort zone.

Let us find out some crucial and most commonly asked questions associated with mediocrity and success related to competitive exam preparation:

1. What is mediocrity?

Ans. The basic meaning of mediocrity is the level at which an event, organization, or individual exists or performs at an average level.

2. What is mediocrity in education?

Ans.  In the education sector, mediocrity is a kind of paralysis that exists in an educational institution or group. The respective institution or group creates an environment (unknowingly or knowingly) where a comparison of the status quo takes place among students studying in the same organization.

3. What is the main cause of mediocrity?

Ans.  The main cause of this feeling is a lack of willingness to fail in the respective activity that they are pursuing for a satisfactory future. Other causes of mediocrity include fear of failure, low expectations (in the form of ambitions), over-commitment, and over-reliance on other individuals (including family members or friends).

4. Is it common to feel mediocre before the exams?

Ans. Yes. It is much more common to feel mediocre before an exam. Do not worry. It is not your fault. Most students experience such a feeling of mediocrity. However, you must tell yourself not to pay attention to any such internal conversations or feelings.

5. How to deal with a feeling of mediocrity during the exam session?

Ans.  If you are feeling mediocre during the exam phase, you need to ensure that you calm your mind with meditation or positive self-talk. However, it is important to keep in mind that you should not allow yourself to indulge in any kind of distracting talk, even a day before the actual competitive exam.

To battle mediocrity, you will first have to address your weaknesses and distractions. After this, you need to ensure that you believe in your abilities and work with them for a fulfilling career ahead. Therefore, you need to give up all your inhibitions, pull your socks up, and be ready to be the master of your trade with the right strategies to fight the same, thus realizing your dreams.

If you have any queries, then please write to us. We would love to know your take on this blog post.

We hope you are all set to fight mediocrity with fear and emerge successful with your goals.

Happy Reading!

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