Is It Okay To Be Mediocre?
Living Happy Roundup
1. One of my social media friends was feeling sad yesterday even though he is published because, basically, he's worried about being a mediocre writer.
2. It is easy to worry about this.
3. For a lot of us that essential sense of horror about never being good enough, never making a difference, never being on a NYT bestseller list or being nominated for a National Book Award, that horror is pervasive.
4. That's not what writing is all about. (Note: I forget this a lot.)
5. When my husband and I weren’t married yet, he wrote me this in an email when I was worrying about not doing enough good in the world because I am just a writer (he does good all the time):
"You never know what kind of positive effect you are having in someone’s life as an author. Even if it is just that someone can escape for an hour from their life, that may be the best part of their day. Think of the kid who doesn’t like their home life or maybe their school life or maybe both. When they pick up a book by Carrie E. Jones, they get to escape the realities of their life and lose themselves in somebody else’s for a while. How cool is that?"
If you are a published writer and having a bad day you can just substitute your name in there because it's true for everyone.
If you are unpublished writer and having a bad day you can do substitute your name in there because you are writing, you are creating, you are escaping and thinking and plotting and feeling and learning and living and existing and that is a positive for you FOR YOU and hopefully for other people too some day.
You have had a positive effect on someone out there. You actions are important. So is your kindness. And kindness is never mediocre. It’s bad ass.
About mediocrity . .
"Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them." - Joseph Heller
There is a lot of contradictory opinions about mediocrity. Some people think it’s great. Some think it is the worst. Some think it’s good for you. Some think the reverse. You can tell from the quote above where Heller stands, right?
The Proctor Gallagher Institute is right there with a post by Joseph Parker writing,
“If we lower our standards far enough we will feel better about our mediocre lives, and we can compare ourselves to others who are less fortunate. We can tell ourselves, at least I can pay my bills, and at least I’m not as bad as that guy in the movie. That may work for a while, maybe even for a lifetime. If we do this and accept being mediocre, we may even feel happy about life, but it won’t be a fulfilled life. The problem is, being mediocre doesn’t leave enough room to have dreams.
“In order to have dreams you need to be better than average. Dreams require a higher standard, one that modern culture rarely shows us. Dreams require that we evaluate where we are and become dissatisfied. Only by becoming dissatisfied, can we take ourselves to a higher level. Yes, we will feel unhappy for a while, but that unhappiness becomes a reason for moving forward, a reason for changing our lives, a reason to fix that relationship, and a reason to quit that job. It provides us a reason to start a business, a reason to seek help for compulsive behaviors if necessary, and a reason for expecting more from ourselves.
“People with dreams and vision have the stuff of greatness. Men and women of great accomplishment and wealth all have dreams, and those without dreams will end up working for those who do. Read the biography of any person of accomplishment and you’ll see that their dreams drove them. It got them out of bed early every morning and kept them up at night. They taught themselves what was necessary, or sought out assistance from others. They molded themselves into a person who could achieve their dreams and forgot about their worries, feelings of inadequacy, and shortcomings. They concentrated on strengths instead of weaknesses.
“So the falsehood that mediocrity is okay must be replaced by the truth that we must live to a higher standard. We have a need to dream, to allow those dreams to consume us, and to mold our lives into what is necessary to accomplish them. The dreams themselves are important. We will celebrate their accomplishment and reap the rewards when finished. However, it is who we will become along the way that is most important. We will become a person who is confident, capable, and inspired. Become a leader who can overcome large obstacles and, more importantly, overcome themselves.”
Others disagree. In an interview with Roger Dean Duncan on Forbes, practicing psychologist Gail Golden speaks to this.
What do you think?
LINKS TO DISCOVER MORE
https://www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com/15806/the-myth-that-being-mediocre-is-okay
