Head carousel: It’s more than okay to be mediocre

head carousel
It’s more than okay to be mediocre

It is propagated almost everywhere: “Become better than before every day”; “Three steps to your new dream body” and “That Girl Routines” for a perfectly structured everyday life. Society tells us that we are not good enough the way we are. That we can always improve something about ourselves, our diet, our job and our relationships. There is a ten-point plan for everything, a guide podcast or Instagram posts to motivate us. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with advice and tips on self-improvement and growth. They can be helpful and take us further, but the dose makes the poison. Personally, the mass of tips scares me off and I stick my head in the sand.

Does the desire for perfection come from outside?

Admittedly, most of the pressure I feel in everyday life comes from social media. In these small apps, everything often seems perfect. And even though I regularly sort my feed and unsubscribe from accounts that don’t make me feel good, I still feel like I’m being overwhelmed by perceived perfection. I often find myself trying to emulate some routine of others in order to have a more productive, beautiful, presentable everyday life that isn’t just mediocre.
But is it really so important for us to be perfect in order to get more recognition from the outside? Does the pressure really come from society or do we do it ourselves because we really want to be what we are told on social media, on advertising posters and by self-discovery coaches?

Mediocrity is perfectly normal

Most of us “just” lead a mediocre life. We work, do the housework, meet friends and from time to time try to bring more variety into our routine with special activities or short trips. In the end, however, our everyday life remains one thing above all: just routine and everyday. And is there really anything wrong with this everyday mediocrity? It’s more than okay not to get out of bed in the morning and prefer to sit on the couch in the evening instead of going through a tight exercise program or dealing with the paperwork that has been lying around for weeks. We don’t have to do everything in everyday life, we don’t have to be above-average productive and certainly not perfect.

Are we putting the most pressure on ourselves?

I would describe myself as a very reflective person. Maybe I’m a little too emotional and overthinking things. On the one hand, I really value routine and consistency, on the other hand, everyday life quickly becomes too boring for me and I long for more excitement in my life. And there it is: the pressure to do more, to be more, to experience more. This pressure comes only to a limited extent from outside. The origin lies in my own insecurity. In that my mediocrity is not enough for me. Nobody else, just me. Instead of pushing myself to do more, to work harder to become a “better version of myself,” I feel paralyzed and numb. I need to work on myself and get to the bottom of the causes of not feeling enough. This is the only way I can learn to accept mediocrity more in myself. And maybe a healthy mediocrity makes me happier and freer than subjecting myself to constant pressure that at some point I can no longer stand?

Cheers to the average

My life is pretty exciting at times, but most of the time it just oozes mediocrity. Bit by bit I try to put less pressure on myself and to acknowledge the current state of my everyday life.
Society gives us an optimal, but not real, picture of a life that would probably never be worth living because we would eventually collapse under the constant pressure. Congratulations to everyone who always gets all their to-do’s and routines done, is exceptionally successful and also finds time for friends, family and themselves. I can not do this.

I’m average. In my everyday life, in my relationships, in my job. Sometimes I’m okay with it, sometimes it tears me apart – and that’s completely normal. Even mediocrity requires work and doesn’t happen overnight. But I think it makes you happier in the long run than a life in which you are never enough for yourself.

Bridget