Strategic Mediocrity

Want to be extraordinary? Start by being okay with average.

What if the secret to a great life isn’t being great at everything?

We live in a world obsessed with optimization—meal plans, bullet journals, color-coded calendars. We want to crush work projects, maintain Instagram-worthy homes, hit personal records at the gym, and maybe even cultivate a prayer life that rivals the mystics.

But if you aim for gold in every arena, you’ll likely burn out before the podium.

Strategic mediocrity means letting go of the illusion that we can do it all so we can lean hard into what God actually calls us to.

Jesuits love to talk about ad majorem Dei gloriam—for the greater glory of God. It may sound like everything should be top-tier, but if we’re stretched in a million directions trying to make everything THE BEST, we’re unlikely to offer our best.

That doesn’t mean slacking off. It means getting serious about what matters most. When we allow some things to be “meh,” we free up time and energy for what truly counts. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can say is a holy no so that we can give a deeper yes.

So here’s the question: where might God be inviting you to lower the bar?

“Good enough” in the small stuff may be the most strategic path to greatness in the big stuff.