What would happen to your life if you treated being mediocre not as something you can live with, but as a crisis that must be survived?
When has a great story ended with someone falling in to the median bracket?What have you learned from being average?
the average…
…person laughs 10 times a day
…student loan debt of 2014 graduates was over $30k
…friendship lasts 7 years
…North Dakotan drinks 45.8 gallons of beer per year, with the average american drinking about 22 gallons/year.
…retirement age in the US is 66, but in the NFL is 30
…cost of an american wedding is over $31k, with an average age of 28
… highest country of happiness is Denmark, but they’re 16th in personal wealth
Not only that but..
Americans over the age of 50 are more likely to be very happy.
-36% of those ages 50-64 and 41% of adults ages 65+ are ‘very happy’
and less than 30% of Americans younger than that report being very happy.
THS is dangerous, and this is average.
Seeing averages (grades, height/weight/physical abilities, intelligence levels, salaries) in the past tended to make me feel superior or inferior to others.
Recently, they make me restless.
Why on earth should I want to fall in to the average of a number that includes the myriad burnouts and the few overachievers?
I’m calling attention to the fact that if one wants to get ahead, if someone wants to have more, be more, or do more, he or she can’t afford to be average in the way they go about life.
Average isn’t good enough. Mediocrity doesn’t yield adventure and praise, yet being common does not mean undignified.
To use others as the control variable by which we choose to live our lives is disingenuous. Judging our actions by the expectations and precedents of others not because we feel compelled to, but because they will allow us to define ourselves to others in a way that will receive a certain reaction or to define our self worth will never be enough.
There will always be people passing judgement at something because of their own mind’s rationalization of what should be. But what is excellent for one may be inadequate to another.
We must start seeing ourselves not categorically defined in society but as people who embrace their ability to choose and think and change and enjoy. The whole idea that people are or are not worthy based on what they do or have done is dangerous, demeaning, and ignorant of the human condition.
I will choose to fall in to my own echelon.
A rank where choosing to be and do what brings joy to myself and the people I share my life with is a truth, and to do everything wholeheartedly. Where friendships and lifetimes are valued at more than time, happiness is shared without quantifying, and I measure my health against my own variables.
Be excellent.