Average or Awesome?
“Average” wasn’t pitched to us in our high school guidance counselor’s office. Do you remember feeling and believing that you could do absolutely anything you set your mind to do? Oh, the places we’d go!
We know that “average” in our culture often has a negative connotation. Do we perhaps keep striving to do more and do better so that we won’t see ourselves as just average?
Are we using our projects to keep us motivated, to convince ourselves that we are above average because of all that we are doing?
Truth is, average is just a scale we set up to measure ourselves against others. How smart are we? How healthy are we? How rich are we?
And even though we know there will always be folks who are above us and who are below us on those scales, we sometimes feel that no matter who we are, where we are, or what we’re doing, it just isn’t enough! That somehow we should be better.
After all, our friends on Facebook seem to be doing awesome things, touting their wonderful vacations, their talented children, their creative activities. And it’s hard not to compare our own life’s “first drafts” to their “polished” presentations.
It’s like we’re running a race we can’t possibly win. We diminish our personal accomplishment, our professional successes, our own ideas as not being “good enough”:
We don’t have to measure ourselves against anyone else. How about just measuring our progress against our previous selves and how far we’ve come on the path to who we are becoming?
- Who we used to be and will be,
- What we used to do and will do,
- What we used to have and will have?
What do we value? How about life itself?
Does a baby have value? Does a puppy have value? Of course they do!
And guess what. They are not trying to better themselves. They just exist and they derive value just by existing!
We need to stop measuring ourselves against the accomplishments of others. AND, we also need to do whatever it is that we do exceptionally well.
- That may be as a caring and supportive parent.
- It might be as a well-organized volunteer for a special cause.
- It may be as a creative and enthusiastic cook.
But who we are is awesome! And what we do is awesome! And what we will do is awesome!
After all, we are inventing our lives right now!
We haven’t done a global pandemic before!
This is our first one, and we’re doing quite well for a first time!
Wouldn’t you agree?