Fighting the ordinary

Seth Godin wrote a fantastic post on the forces of mediocrity which in part says;

 

There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.

In fact, the opposite is true.

 

We’ve all experienced it. Once a great initiative is recognised, the antagonists creep out to start picking away, putting up obstacles and hanging out for each mistake.

We all know who they are. Motivated by their own agendas they agitate and angle to maintain the status quo. It might be the long termer who has lost faith in people and is scared to try anything new or the controlling manager who takes offense at the suggestion at there might be a better way than the way it’s always been done. Whatever their motivation is to shoot you down try not to take it personally – it’s not you, it’s them. And more often than not, they’re just afraid of change.

But you must not accept it either.

Find people who are receptive your plan and work to build networks to support you. Find examples where your idea has worked in the past for others and learn everything you can from them. Recognise what the objections will most likely be and work out how to diffuse them. Then put your head down and work to make it happen.

But, and probably most importantly, don’t make it hard for the naysayers to change their minds – you don’t want pride to get in the way of them getting on board.

While it may be overwhelming and feel like the forces resisting you, run too deep to ever achieve change, just starting your own quest to be remarkable, you will find you generate momentum. There will be people who believe in the value of your ideas.

Leading the way and pursuing your path in the face of opposition is the toughest task in the world. But you can’t let those championing the mediocre stop you.