On Mediocrity

I am unsure how far I'm going to get with this post, for I'm having to put great effort into choosing my words.  I have a real problem with people of any age being content with mediocrity in activities that involve their time and the time of others.  I understand that the definition is being neither bad nor good--the middle.  However, accepting mediocrity is far closer to allowing failure that it is to attaining success--despite its definition of being in the middle.

I must draw a definition before going on.  I understand that failure is a part of life and that some wisdom comes from failure.  The aspect of failure that I'm criticizing in this post is the choice of failure.  Yes, choice.  There are situations within your life that avoiding failure is beyond your control; however, I believe those situations are few in number.

I'll illustrate this from the perspective of a performing musician.  Wrong notes are never acceptable.  When playing or singing, note errors must be corrected as soon as possible (or prevented through strong reading techniques).  Wrong notes do occur though (i.e. when sight reading a new piece).  After three rehearsals (an arbitrary number), those same wrong notes are now a choice.  It is curious that the performer rarely plays wrong notes with the intent of playing wrong notes.  The choice comes with the performer refusing to take, find, or make the time to correct the wrong notes.

That choice of laziness is the choice of failure.  The laziness protects the existance of the wrong notes.  Musicians have more at stake than personal failure due to the choice of laziness (and in my opinion, mediocrity).  When a musician within a group of musicians chooses to be lazy, their wrong notes affect the product of the entire band--regardless of how well the other musicians have prepared.  What's worse are the circumstances where the wrong-note-performing musician finds humor in their mistakes (mind you I'm not talking about sight reading.  I'm talking several rehearsals into the concert preparation process).  If playing wrong note is so entertaining, why would you remain a part of a group committed to playing the correct notes?  I don't know the answer to this.  But when this situation arises it causes my blood to boil.

Luckily, the aforementioned musicians are (in my experience) uncommon--even among beginning musicians.  As they are learning the basic skills of their instrument, mistakes are going to happen.  However, they strive to correct them--even if this correction takes multiple attempts.  Such a number of attempts is different than a young musician either (a) choosing to play the wrong note or (b) not caring enough to try to improve their playing.

I am not immune to the mediocre mode of thinking and behavior.  When I identify it in me, I am angered just as if I detect in others--moreso even.  I could probably make an argument of the merits of mediocre behavior; however, it would be in conflict with what I believe.  My conclusion is this:  If mediocre behavior and effort have to exist, why must it manifest in situations where (a) others are directly affected or (b) where you have made an effort to particpate in an activity then choose to be mediocre.