In their famous song Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste, Norma Jean wrote, “Mediocrity is the killer.”

As I look back on my life, there are about 1,000,001 different things I regret not doing. I regret not staying healthy. I regret hurting people. I regret saying the wrong things at the wrong time. I regret so many things, but there is one thing that almost paralyzes me every time I think about it. I regret not being my best.

We’ve all had jobs, classes, and places where people counted on us and we didn’t do our best. I’ve worked in a lot of environments: Dairy Queen, laying hardwood floor and ceramic tile, security guard, secretary (yep, for 3 months), and youth pastor. When I look back on those different jobs, I think about those things I wish I had done differently. Even working as a secretary, which is nowhere near my calling or strengths, I still wish I would have done more and done better. Some of those regrets are simply because I wasn’t the wiser at the time. Some of those regrets could have been prevented. But the one that always frustrates me is not being my best in situations where people counted on me to do things right.

The beautiful thing about the future is our ability to change what has happened in the past. We may not be able to time travel, but we can make darn sure we won’t do that same thing again. We can ensure that we will always do our best in the future. We can ensure that those mistakes from our past won’t haunt us and repeat themselves in the future. Sometimes I forget that. Sometimes after I fail or make mistakes, I begin to drown in apathy and mediocrity. I do things haphazardly and in the process, slowly but surely, I lose things. I get bad grades, my reputation becomes tarnished, and most importantly my self-esteem goes out the window. It’s a slippery slope and with each inch forward that proverbial snow ball rolls into a full-fledged avalanche hurling down the hill leaving me with no escape.

Therein lies the deception. There is no avalanche. As long as I have breath in my lungs, I can always begin changing my ways and continue hiking up the mountain. I can start doing things with excellence. As long as I didn’t lie or cheat, I’m almost certain to regain my reputation. And if I get my life in order, stay healthy, work out, maybe get some good counseling (by the way, I think almost everyone should be in counseling), then it’s probable that I will like the guy I see in the mirror.

Don’t be mistaken, this won’t happen overnight. Just like the process that got you where you are now didn’t happen in one day, so getting things back in order won’t necessarily happen overnight either. It will take time. It will take frustration. It will take you probably wanting mediocrity again. But you can either give up and backslide, or you can push forward. In discussing how he got healthy and lost weight, Chris Pratt made the statement, “The time is going to go by just as fast whether you’re doing it or not, so who do you want to be 8 months from now?”

As we begin a new year, many people try to make changes and resolutions. Many of those resolutions begin to fail and fade as the days move forward. But don’t fool yourself! The resolution or change doesn’t control you. You control the change. If you don’t go to the gym one day, then so what?! Go the next day. Change takes time. Just because you miss one day doesn’t mean you have to wait 360 more days (or until next Monday) to “restart.”

Nick Vujicic, in a motivational speech said, “I’m down here face down and I have no arms and no legs, it should be impossible for me to get back up, but it’s not. You see I will try 100 times to get up and if I fail 100 times and I give up, do you think I will ever get up? No! But if I fail, I try again, and again, and again, for as long as I try there is always that chance of getting up.”

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