Greatness Is Overrated. I Aspire to Be Average…
…said no one, ever.
If given the choice, nobody aspires to be a five out of 10. Five is average. Five is MEH. And NOBODY aspires to be “meh.” Nobody sets out with the intention of being average.
But we often feel like we don’t have a choice.
“My boss…”
“My industry…”
“My schedule…”
“My abilities…”
In these moments, it’s just so easy for our work to wind up average, isn’t it? We throw our aspirations out the window and instead rely on something safer.
For instance, let’s say you wanted to capitalize on a new trend in marketing, like influencer marketing perhaps. Well, you’re in luck. In under a second, you can access tens of thousands of tutorial videos on YouTube telling you exactly how to do this. Or maybe you prefer text. No problem! Millions upon millions of Google search results await. You can ask people on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You can download a podcast or join a discussion forum of marketers online.
At every turn, we have access to the world’s advice for exactly how to do something. And while advice can be useful, it’s always generalized unless pressed through the filter of your own unique context. Every bit of advice — every best practice — is based on different people and/or different moments in time. When we believe the guru, the absolute, we too often fail to insert the most powerful asset we have: our own intuition.
So, yes, it has never been easier to be average. If we don’t have an idea or an answer, we can find and follow everyone else’s. But nobody aspires to be average.
So why the disconnect? Why does so much work wind up perfectly meh despite our wishing, hoping, and intending for something better?
That is what I’m trying to figure out through the podcast. Every week, we share the stories of individuals and organizations who stared at the convention and ran the opposite way. We go deep into the messiness that is intuition and try to tease out how we can be more proactive about trusting our own.
If that’s something you’re excited about, subscribe via email or on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or Google Play.
Want to do more exceptional work? Don’t look for a better boss, more creative industry, more time in the day, or extra training. Look for what makes you an exception. Start by seeking your answers from within. Trust your intuition.
