Dead End Education

We have been educated to end up “stuck.” From kindergarten until graduating high school or even college, we’ve learned that doing average or even below average work, doing “just enough,” will get you constantly and consistently promoted. In fact, promotions to the next grade are expected and anticipated. We’ve been conditioned to believe that mediocrity moves you forward in life.

It’s no wonder young adults feel overwhelmed when they try to begin their careers and realize the bare minimum isn’t sufficient anymore. By the time that individual has graduated college, he or she has spent the last sixteen to eighteen years of life being trained for mediocrity. After all, “C’s get degrees,” right? Now, all of a sudden it seems, the life they want to live requires them to stretch and get out from under the protection of the bell curve. It’s brand new territory and many never venture out. Tempted by the appearance of “safety in numbers,” most hang out in the crowd and choose a life of “just enough” because that’s all they’ve been trained to do.

Maybe you have avoided being sucked in by this kind of thinking, but you likely grew up in and around it and probably still have residue of that thought process staining your perspective to some degree. Even today, you are surrounded by the “just enough” mentality. It’s nearly impossible to go through life and not have your own mindset tarnished from time to time by the C’s-Get-Degrees-Crowd. In what areas of your life have you allowed your perspective to be contaminated?

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