July 5: Being successful

I'm sick and tired of mediocrity. Plain and simple.

I'm decent, fair, OK at a lot of things. I'm a decent tennis player, a fair basketball player, a decent reporter, a fair biker. That's cool, but not cool enough.

I want to be really good at something. I want to go out and do something and feel invincible, feel like I'm in complete control. I think I want to become a better tennis player. I want to play every day and develop a consistency that I can't seem to maintain in my life. That's always been my problem. I might be good on the tennis court one day, but the next day I suddenly can't hit a forehand.

It's ridiculously frustrating. I want to be good at something day in and day out.

Watching Wimbledon these past few days, I've come to appreciate just how good the world's top players are. Rarely do they fudge up ground strokes. Most of the time, points don't end until a winner is hit — unless there is a killer serve. While I have no aspirations of becoming a professional tennis player, I just want to become consistently good.

I think doing so would boost my overall confidence. It would show me that if I put the time and effort in, I can become very good at something.

So it's time to throw mediocrity out the door. While I applaud those who have a variety of talents, I can no longer sit content being decent at a number of ventures. I need to become good at doing something, even if it's only a single vocation. Maybe it'll be tennis, maybe something else.

But I can guarantee you that I'll put in the hours, minutes and seconds to hone my skills in a particular area. I owe it to myself.