Accelerating Beyond Mediocrity: Cultivating the Inner Drive

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re listening to the podcast that recognizes that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up, up by 10 or down, down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance it’s gonna take to win this here game.

Man, welcome back to another episode of halftime talks. You know, I want to start with a little bit of appreciation, because that’s the perspective we need in order to succeed. Today, I want to appreciate a game that I play, and I challenge you to play too, and that’s walk down the street and look for simple or complex, or however you define it, look for that reason to smile, be it a person’s shoes, the attitude, the little to somebody’s step. Because guess what? I appreciate when I can see the essence of life just really flowing out of other people, it gives me permission to be that light myself, and as I notice more, the things that I really love happen more, and as those things happen more, it creates a whole life that gets set into motion that are more reasons to appreciate.

So today I appreciate playfully looking for reasons to smile. That was appreciation. And guess what? You know, the beginning of our day or the beginning of an episode like this, it’s always great to appreciate, to set the mood, to set the stage and make sure we are truly engaged in the intention that we want to move forward with. Thank you guys, the returners, the new people, all of you who decide to listen to these podcasts. It really touches me in a very meaningful way to know that some of the ideas that I toil with in my journal are valuable as perspective, as what’s been told to me, and it’s also a cathartic chance for me to organize some of the these ideas off of my brain and into the world.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about mediocrity. We’re going to be talking about engagement in this world, and I think there’s a few gems that are destined to be shared. I’ll leave that up to you to decide. And you know, I have fun doing this regardless. So right now, let’s get ready for the episode. Let’s strap in our seat belts, open our mind. Prepare to take some notes, even if they are mental notes. Let’s just begin to engage. Because, you know, here comes the episode. You I’m a serial journaler. I am a serial curious, questioning philosopher, and when I say I’m a serial journaler.

I am a serial curious, questioning philosopher, and when I say philosopher, I just mean the simple translation of the verbs and the words of Philo Sophia, the love of wisdom and wisdom is more than just knowledge. Wisdom is that pursuit to apply the understandings deeply and foundationally in our everyday behavior, not something that we can reach momentarily, but something that we can ingrain our rhythm, our cognitive thinking, our behavior, deeply into. So it’s not just reflective in the shoulds that we can pontificate about, but our philosophy is visible, even if we don’t say a word for to see something that’s ineffable, something that our minds cannot truly describe, but We recognize it immediately, and once we find the words, we can associate it with it.

That is the pursuit in which I seek. So in today’s today’s episode, I want to be talking about our minds. And I wrote down this quote, a mind not pushed internally or externally, begins its descent below mediocrity. One of my favorite teachers, Abraham Hicks, i. Has this phrase that really resonates deeply within me, and it’s similar to this. And I’ll say the quote again, and then I’ll reference this new quote. A mind not pushed internally or externally, begins its descent below mediocrity. Now this teacher, she says, it’s not like a college degree success, where you can achieve it and then run around forever holding it up in the air like it’s something that continues to be relevant.

The painter doesn’t stand behind its painting and pretend that that work, that one accomplishment, is enough to satiate their desire for growth and progress forever. You’ve heard the phrase before. If we’re not moving forward, we’re moving backward, as each day, within my lifetime, especially throughout my adulthood, I have been I have bore witness to the fact that what got me here won’t get me to where I still seek to aspire toward. The road is moving underneath our feet. My success yesterday is irrelevant today, because the ingredients, the variables and the competitors on the stage in which I play on and perform on and seek that excellence on is always shifting, and our minds know this.

We always want to level up. And as we level up, can we maintain the correct perspective to not try to overshoot the gaps that we should really embed ourselves and and find out what is exactly there thinking that we need to skip ahead when there’s enough where we are to last us a lot longer than we’ve previously thought or imagined. There’s something about the journey that I think we all fail to appreciate. Each stage of the journey is essential. We don’t read the first chapter and then skip to the last chapter. Previously in the podcast, I’ve, I’ve had a quote, I’ve, I’ve had a saying which is so applicable, so often we want to go from A to Z, but if we go to the next letter after a, it’s B, and if we go to the letter before Z, it’s y, and so instead of thinking it needs to be a to z, we need to focus on B, who we’re being and why, and it’ll give a dimensionality to life as we find it, to appreciate the stages, to appreciate the cast of characters and conflict and things that we should be Curious to solving along the way, because most often, success becomes steps on a staircase that we try to scurry so far up.

And once we reach these places, we take off. We take off our suit of armor that got us there and expect to still be equipped and ready for battle. I remember at times after high school or say, college, you’d hear people talk about learning being over. I I can’t I can’t even imagine a day that goes by without forming a hypothesis or conclusion about what is still possible for for me my life, how do I engage in my trouble spots? How do I get better? How do I climb higher? How do I perform at my best? From where I stand now, I know I’m not the man I will be, I’m not the person I want to be, but I am not lamenting who I am, because I am still pursuing the idea of my personified, my idealized perfection.

And so what are we doing to push. Ourselves internally, or are we waiting on circumstances around us to light that fire? Either way that the fire is lit, it works. Hopefully down the line, you’ll learn how to stay engaged, how to stay motivated, how to light your own fire. But until then, a lit fire, that inspiration, that passion, that desire to consume a little bit more, to become a little bit more, to acquire a little bit more competent skill, confidence, perfection of our craft allows us to stay above the threshold that we call mediocrity, and in order to do that, in order for that to exist as radiant and as bright as it can live, we have to take out of play and remove it as a factor within our equation, keeping up with others because curiosity, passion, obsession.

It creates its own thirst. It opens more of the map for us to explore. Your map is not my map. My Map is the culmination of all the contrast, the pain, the joy, the inspiration, the curiosities and the questions that life has inspired within me. It’s implicitly designing the journey that I will continue to take, and that is what is relevant. So how does this apply to you? What is the last book you’ve read who inspires you? What are you curious about? What new thing Have you immersed yourself within that has made you deliberately feel uncomfortable? And if these are few and far between, I will ask you, how are you continuing to challenge yourself?

There’s a reason why people’s lives decline precipitously upon retirement, they’re not engaged. They’re complete. They no longer are questioning or are pursuing a work which their mind, their body and their spirit can get behind. And so learning and pursuing the idealized version of yourself is is not just a family ambition, a spiritual ambition, a career ambition. It is a life’s ambition. And the beautiful thing about this process, this process of finding that voice and keeping our bonfire lit forever for as long as we can, and learning how to reignite that flame is that we know when we are not giving 100% we know when We’re sitting on our laurels and resting.

We know when we’re doing just enough not to cause the specter or the eye of the crowd and disappoint others, but I challenge you. I challenge you to keep your keep your fire lit, discover ways that will put you in a place where you’re destined to learn. Earlier today, I was listening to another podcast. It was, uh, I want to say major Domos, David Chang’s podcast, and one of the things he said really resonated with me. He said failure is a necessary ingredient in how any successful life is prepared. And it’s not necessarily the failure, it’s what that failure, or perceived failure, or that opportunity, presents to us.

It presents to us our fears. It presents to us our stories. It presents to us a world of upside. So often we look at the underbelly of it without flipping to the other side of the coin of what shows us an opportunity for growth, what shows us a new domain that is fresh and fertile, that once we acclimate to it, we are no longer the same person. Nothing compares to these major life shakeups that allow us to reorient ourself within our own life. And so I’m going to go back to the quote in which I started. Am I not pushed internally or externally, begins its descent below mediocrity.

Are you pushing yourself? Does your community push you? Do you have the resolve to want more? What standard are you using to guide yourself? Whose criteria are you using to decide and define what progress is, what growth is? These are valid questions, questions that are always at play in my mind. And sometimes we find ourselves in a season, the slow season. Sometimes we find that we haven’t picked up a book in a while. We haven’t reflected we are just reacting wholesale to the conditions of our life. We become manic. We become prisoners of what is, and sometimes we need to break that cycle, that manic high is, and when it’s good, it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s bad.

But get on a different ship. Get on a ship that is guided by your intention, your intention to exist beyond the what is, because that’s the journey, because things are going to change. But you shouldn’t be high only when it’s high. I want you to be high in average and low times, because how you feel should be unconditionally tethered to how you prefer. Tis the game, right? If you’re listening, you’ve had your storms, you’ve had your monsoon seasons, you’ve had the days and the sunlight. I’m asking you to relish it all, because it shows you more of what’s possible. So when the sun’s out, bask in it.

When it rains out, bask in the rain. Because one thing that we commonly fail to appreciate is that it is all adding to the culmination of the composite person that we’re becoming as we look back on our lives, be it the short term or the long term perspective, some of the most traumatic events have given us our most heightened abilities as we move beyond that stage of fear, of new, of uncomfortable and embrace what’s there? What are the raw ingredients there that we can consume and grow the second we do that, we shift the orientation of our world and are presented with the revelation of opportunity, the opportunity to engage, the opportunity to discover, the opportunity to experiment, the opportunity to move into a new becoming.

These are some things to consider. And with that, it’s been another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul. Thank you guys for listening. These are some ideas on my mind and my journal that I consider that that guide me, that steward me toward the Rahim I still seek to become hope. These words have found you in a place of not only receptivity, but curiosity toward engagement. I. A curiosity toward clarity and curiosity toward finding that inspiration to give it action and may come alive in your life. Thank you for listening, and until next time, this is halftime talks, make sure you share with a friend. The more who know, the more we grow, and I’ll see you On the other side in our next episode. Peace. You