Friday, April 8, 2011

The Average Line

The Mendoza line is a term used in baseball to define the success or failure of a hitter.  Mario Mendoza was a baseball player who in any particular season would allow his batting average to drop to unacceptable standards for a hitter due to struggles at the plate.   Baseball sets the Mendoza line at a .200 batting average and failure to reach that mark puts you below the line.  I have to wonder, if you can set a line to define the status of a hitter in a sport, is there a Mendoza line for life?
To obtain an average, we take an entire body of results and find the midpoint.  If an average represents the midpoint of the entirety and you live your life working hard and trying to do the best you can, you would assume that you would be guaranteed to find yourself comfortably above the Mendoza line?  However, success in life is subjective.  What each person wants out of life is different therefore the standards of success will vary. 
So when we set the Mendoza line for our lives, what if we set the bar too high?  What happens if hard work and doing the best you can doesn’t exactly get you to the successful side of the line?  What if, dare I say it, we are just destined to be average?  If we have a few stuggles at the plate, should we allow them to bring down our entire average? 
"Refuse to be average.  Let your heart soar as high as it will." - A.W. Tozer

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