The Mediocrity of the Small Minded
Discipline appears to be a lost trait these days. Little is it currently understood that discipline leads to mastery, to success, to accomplishment. The current mantra that children must be raised in a free-wheeling environment of creativity is baloney. Creativity without disciplined execution is simply chaos. Nothing positive comes from it.
Raising children without displaying and imparting the importance of discipline and its associated rules sets them up for a life of mediocrity. Both provide a sense of order. Yes, creative freedom and a certain level of impulsiveness are important. But without the disciplines of self-awareness, thoughtfulness and consideration, that creativity will go nowhere. Self-indulgence is all that becomes of it.
I’ve come to a conclusion about most people: they are mediocre. Most could set their goals higher; they should aspire to do more but they don’t.
This grim awareness of an underachievement phenomenon has formed in, of all places, the gym. I began lifting weights when I was 16, got serious about it when I was 18, and have been lifting ever since. That’s 56 years for you math wizzes. I have lifted in pretty much every kind of gym imaginable – dungeons, garages, homes, bodybuilding gyms (where steroids were standard practice), powerlifting gyms, YMCAs, high schools, colleges – you name it.
In all that time and through all those places, there has been one virtually uninterrupted constant – people re-rack their free weights and return the barbells and dumbbells to their proper spots. In short, they exercised the discipline of cleaning up after themselves so others didn’t have to. Common courtesy, right? So one would think. But there’s another important aspect to this behavior – in a serious gym, nothing less than strict adherence to this standard is tolerated. By anyone. If you didn’t, someone was in your face to tell you otherwise.
Proper gym etiquette – manners – was observed and required by everyone. Why is that so important? Because everyone who is serious wants to make the most of their time there. Having to search for the right set of weights or picking up after someone else is not productive. It’s a common rule that very successful people are very efficient with their use of time. The old saying, “There’s a place for everything, and everything in its place” is one way we become efficient.
Today’s gyms don’t appear to abide by these common rules of courtesy. Now it’s every man/woman for themselves. Leave a mess, put weights wherever you see fit, take up space on a machine for 10 or 15 minutes while looking at your phone, confiscate multiple sets of weights as if you’re the only one using them, then walk off as if you’re so important other people should be demeaning themselves to clean up after you. What-The-Fuck is it with you narcissistic pieces of shit?
I notice the most offensive gyms tend to be frequented by lower middle-class individuals. People who, by all rights, should be aspiring to climb the ladder, to make something of themselves, to have goals that will place them in positions of importance and improved economic standing. Instead, all they display is a distain for themselves and the people around them. They certainly don’t care about looking after anyone. They give no thought to the impression they make on others, how that might affect their own self-image.
This lack of discipline has no choice but to carry through to all other parts of their lives – their work quality and thoroughness, their teamwork and communication abilities, their interactions with others. I only see people who are very satisfied with themselves – for no good reason. They are mired in mediocrity. They will remain mediocre; they will die mediocre.
Their goals are unfocused and unarticulated, if they have any at all. They simply go about their lives, put in the time and call it good. They will never be successful because they don’t even put in a serious effort at something so visual as self-image. How do I know? Because they are not committed to the hard work of improvement, even when the results will be highly visible in their own bodies. If obvious results don’t motivate them, then nothing will. Every person I’ve ever seen in a gym who was serious translated that into other goals.
Do they bring that to the gym, or does the gym give that to them? I think the gym reinforces whatever behavior you bring into it. What they bring is only negativity, laziness, lethargy, selfishness. The people who come with purpose and focus are the ones who excel at weight training, at self-image, at translating that success to the rest of their lives. It spills over.
None of the mediocre will ever experience that. They will continue to go about their sad little lives as if they have beaten the system or been victimized by it. Either way, they are deluding themselves into believing a lie that now rules their lives. Hard work, discipline, focus, follow-through, working with others, communicating, courtesy are the hallmarks of successful people. These gym attendees display a glaring lack of those traits.
There’s no hope for them. I have given up pointing these things out to them. They look at you as if you are from another planet. It’s very discouraging to realize how many people have just given up caring about anything of consequence. All they care about is someone else caring for them and picking up the pieces.
I blame them, I blame their parents, I blame their teachers. How on earth did anyone think enabling undisciplined, discourteous behavior was going to work out? We have a civic duty to treat each other with respect. None of that is evident in the gym, and it translates into every part of life.
I am at once surprised, saddened and angered by it. Because I was raised with the notion that discipline is inextricably entangled with performance, I assumed it was a given for most people. Instead, I find my parents endowed me with a gift not commonly imparted. How sad.
No matter what it is, the key to bettering ourselves lies with discipline. It’s a sad commentary on our state of affairs to notice how rare it has become.
