“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” -Oscar Wilde

In his book, The Fred Factor, Mark Sanborn says, “Nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional.”

Yet (this is a big yet), we allow people, every day, to prevent us from being exceptional. We allow spouses, partners, loved ones, friends, relatives to tell us we are average, we are okay, and being average and okay is good enough because good enough is enough to keep you in the game … and, BTW, you’re not getting paid enough to be exceptional. And our bosses? They play a variation: “Be exceptional … at coloring in the lines … with the right colors. Do not rock the boat whatever you do.”

So what do we do? We follow suit. We play down. We fit into the mediocrity mold. Why? Because playing down keeps us in the game just like we were told. Playing down is easy. Playing down keeps a paycheck rolling in. 

But there’s a problem, and Oscar Wilde nailed it, we are just existing, we are just going through the motions. 

“But it’s what we have to do, we have to be cookies in a cookie-cutter world. It is what it is.” That’s the handy excuse we have convinced ourselves of and given permission to to keep us quietly tied to our cubicles filling out our TPS coversheets.

But there’s a rub. We live in a world that is tired of mediocrity and getting by. We live in a world desperate for above average, desperate for the standout who does things competently with integrity and style. 

So what does that tell us? There is a ton of opportunity for those who choose not to make excuses, not to pander to “I don’t get paid enough,” not to accept being average in an average world. And for those terrified that I’m proposing that they start a coup to overturn the world order, that is not what’s required … mostly because it won’t work.

What is required is to look at yourself as more than just an employee. You must see yourself as a professional. No matter what work you do, whether you sling burgers or do neurosurgery, you are a professional. 

But what does that mean exactly?

It means being committed to excellence. I.e., getting better all the time, working continually to master your craft. No matter what your work is, you will be the best at what you do come hell or high water.

In the inspiring words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”

But excellence is only one part of it, being a professional also means taking responsibility for all that needs to happen to do the job right.

It means being accountable for the results.

It means having integrity to do what’s right even when it hurts.

It means being the honest and transparent team member everyone points to when asked who is the most trustworthy. 

That’s what professional means. That’s Professional with a capital P. And by being that Professional, you become a leader, who, by example, moves others to see that good enough is not good enough and only great-and-getting-better-every-day is good enough. You lead them, one by one, to see that they too can play up instead of down. 

But as Sanborn says, it’s a choice. It’s a choice you have to make. Are you going to merely exist or are you going to stand out and be what our world desperately needs?

Carpe diem. It means seize the day. I.e., now is the time to decide and take action. Or, in the words of Tom Peters, “Carpe diem…’cause if you don’t carpe it, the diem is gone…forever.”

Take heed: “This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one … instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”  -George Bernard Shaw

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