Saturday, July 12, 2014

Being average is not bad at all

Most of us consider ourselves average or people around us label us as average. We make efforts to get rid of this "average" tag as we feel it means "not good" or "below par."  We are people who try our level best, and work really hard but still can't reach that so-called top level. We are the students who, despite our best efforts can't make it to that honor roll, we can't get admitted to these so-called elite institutes or crack those entrance exams, our best writings or our oratory skills can't match many who seem to do it effortlessly. There are still spelling mistakes in our writing, our sentences sometimes don't make any sense, and we make some mistakes that get us in trouble. This list can go on but I think readers got the point which I want to make here. So, many people are termed average in conventional terms based on their professional achievements, financial status, or lifestyle. Actually, our society uses many parameters to judge how successful a person is, most of the time professional and financial success tops the list. As I mentioned earlier many people constantly try very hard to get rid of the "average" tag. It is always good to aspire to go to the next level but it is not good to lose self-confidence because of some social stereotyping. 

People who earn sufficient money enough for their needs, who are happy with what they are doing in their life irrespective of how much money they make are many times considered average or ordinary. Many times they get this tag just because they don't earn a crazy amount of money, they don't have an extravagant lifestyle and no magazine or news channel considers them as a celebrity. These people are not considered as newsmakers, money spenders, or party throwers. Their contribution or presence is hardly noticed by others as they don't stand out. In reality, the contribution of these average or ordinary people matters a lot towards the well-being of our society. Terms like average, above average, or extraordinary are relative terms. Different people use different criteria to decide who belongs to which group. I always try to focus on my efforts and my personal behavior without worrying about in which category people put me. If I know that I am giving my best under given circumstances then it doesn't matter if the outcome is average or above average in conventional terms, for me, it is giving my best matters most. What others say matters very little if I am happy with my efforts. It is important to learn from mistakes and try not to repeat them. We all make mistakes, it is impossible to avoid them. Some people learn the lesson in one shot and some learn it the hard way but learning is what matters. Next, criticism as well as appreciation are very important and should be always welcomed. Feedback from others can be used as a motivation for self-improvement but it should not be detrimental to our confidence. We need critics as well as cheerleaders in our lives. Many get affected negatively because of comments they receive from others. It is impossible to please everyone around us, there will be some criticism from someone no matter what we do. Being called an average doesn't mean something bad or there is something wrong with us, it just means people think we can do better. Average doesn't always mean below par, the meaning of the term depends on the situation and context it is used. It can be taken in a very positive way, as I said any feedback should be useful to boost our confidence not detrimental to it. Nowadays because of all these motivational pep talks, the word average or ordinary almost sounds like abuse, many people don't like these terms if they are used to describe them. If a person is happy and giving her/his best effort then it is the best possible scenario for that person and our society. Then it doesn't matter what people or society thinks about him/her according to me that person is successful. We need to focus on giving our personal best and forget about the labels given by society. Just give your best and forget the rest.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

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