Have you been struggling lately to get things done on time? Does success feel far to reach? Is your need to be an ideal student or worker bringing your downfall? It is too often that we find ourselves in a rut of unproductivity, procrastination and low motivation. It’s difficult to comprehend such situation and get out of this mess.
Recently I was continuously failing as a student to do even an hour of study in a day, when I ideally wanted to devote my time to studies and be a bookworm. If you are working, it is not that uncommon to find a worker with an ideal vision of being a workaholic but not getting any work done. It stems from a very frequent pattern of behaviour: expectation of perfection.
After struggling to correct this behaviour, I went to my therapist for answers. After listening long to my predicament, she ironically declared that your need to be an ideal student is the reason to be a crappy student! The fact that I have sought nothing less than brilliance in my entire life, stooping to mediocrity is a big no-no! I would rather fail if I have to. But is being always brilliant at what I do, possible? It is easier to realize the answer than to accept it.
Anyone with more experience of life can easily state that the mediocre have always been more successful in the long run, at doing what the brilliant people does brilliantly. Then it obviously poses the question- is mediocrity more useful to get ahead in life? Can it be a way of life?
“For Krista O'Reilly Davi-Digui, who lives in Canada with her husband and three children, it is heartfelt.
"When I say I'm mediocre, I am," she says, posing the question in a recent blog, What if I am mediocre and choose to be at peace with that?
"I love to learn but I'm not the most brilliant person. I like to write but that doesn't mean I'm the greatest writer. I'm just kind of plain." Krista studied for an education degree, dropped out after suffering bouts of anxiety and depression, and is now a certified holistic nutritionist and "joyful living educator".
"The messages are always do more, be more, sacrifice sleep for productivity, bigger is better, rush, rush, rush," she says.
"It just destroys me. I feel like that isn't life and I don't want it and I can't even begin to keep up. So many of us just want to get off that hamster wheel and just breathe."
Approaching this issue more practically, it is easy to figure out that the more energy you burn at the present, the less energy will be left to burn in the future i.e. one could easily burn out fast and lose motivation and commitment towards their work.
While some have pursued hard work and dedication towards what they do and have become the outliers of our society, most are doing just okay! At every turn of an hour, a new article or quote shall be published to motivate us into being extraordinary but the stakes of submitting to it is high and risky.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. In it he presents a five-tier model of human needs.
As shown above, he puts the nature’s priority list-food, water, warmth and rest, the basic ones, stability and safety after that, relationships and friends the next and the last two, prestige or accomplishment and reaching full potential respectively. Before seeking out the less basic needs, we need to have the security of livelihood in hand.
The Obsession with Perfection:
While some put the hard work with a vision in sight, some simply are driven by the need to be perfect in all spheres of life. This unhealthy pursuit can send one spiralling downwards if not rid of, at the right time. Mediocrity then will be a haven to discover!
Lies of the social media:
Social media exposes us to the highlight of the lives of people around us leading us to believe that this is the way life should be lived. It never captures the struggles or the low points in one’s life obliterating our ability to look at life more realistically.
More time to celebrate life:
Once the need for mediocrity is realized, one finds more time to appreciate the wrapped happiness in the little moments of life. One simply has more time to grow and have hobbies which take care of your physical as well as mental health.
Final thoughts:
If the going gets tough, it helps a lot to sit back, take a deep breath and embrace mediocrity. As my therapist says- “be flexible, be ordinary”.
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