This is something that has been bothering me for years. And I really don’t know if I will be able to do justice to the topic or the voices in my head but making an attempt anyway.
No one likes mediocrity. One thinks they can get a better life by trying to stretch their skills, aspirations and motivations, right? Wrong. It’s the same thing as more stress for a man who’s getting richer or a girl with such a hunk of a boyfriend that she, instead of enjoying her own guy, has to spend more time warding off other women. What happens in turn is that instead of feeling satisfied with your own life, you feel more insecure by the day.
So I say, Thoda aur wish mat karo. Bas karo.
OK I will give a dumb example from my own campus. A couple, relatively ugly, thus non-noticeable for more reasons than one, know they can’t do any better than the other, and are so freakishly happy (This I derive out of the fact that the guy was running out of the girl’s room towards the bathroom at 4am, trying to cover something I am not even going to talk about) And I am conspicuously jealous. Not because they have a partner, but they’re lucky enough for their heads not to tell them to try or wait for anything better.
Find safety in your mediocre life, convention and predictability. And I’m not being sarcastic here. Don’t think you can do any better, ‘cause when you think you strive for it and there’s always a good chance you will fail which in turn means that you lose even the mediocre thing you had. If you’re a winner, you are always alone. See, there are more mediocre things in the world which, by the relative weightage concept, means you have a better chance at happiness if you look for plain mediocrity. Mediocre intellect, mediocre career, mediocre partner, modest living with no regrets, mediocre kids, their mediocre needs from you and so on. Doesn’t it make life so much easier?
What’s the point of this article? I want to fight against this basic human instinct to look beyond his means. Settle. Just settle. Settle for anything. And love what you have.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
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11 comments:
a nice read :) but you are asking for the impossible.
I don't agree... but I hope it works for you...
I my opinion, for whatever it is worth, there is a difference between being practical and "settling for anything"... I would like to think that this is what you meant...
Everyone I guess in the end compromises on the what we define as 'desirable'... but our happiness, I believe, depends on how we practically define our 'essentials' and then set out to achieve them with limited compromise... and yes, the essential, desirable matrix is relative...
Settling for anything is compromising on our basic instinct for will, wish and need...
Don't work for me either. That's the fuck up :P
i dont know if thats the right way to approach it..however having said that, i feel there is a fine line between trying, and being engrossed so much that you lose the fun of trying.
i think one should try, and also not forget to enjoy while they are at it.
@mind: thanks for wording it right. Its probably this: what you have is what you don't want but if you were made to settle for it then you convince yourself[for the time being] that its good enough and what you always wanted :) until you again understand your capacity to earn something bigger.
[so mediocrity does exist but wasn't designed to hold up].
And technically I am glad that it doesn't drive the world and that people don't settle for less and there's always a what if and why not :)
Well I guess it makes sense when I interpret in a way when I say that one person gains something better only when the other person higher up relinquishes something he consider mediocre and goes up a strata himself. Then everyone gets what they want. Unfortunately it doesn't happen that way and some people get screwed over!
As for the criticisms towards this articles, lets just say this is what I rant about at my pessimistic best :)
One moment spent with brilliance is worth a lifetime of mediocrity.
There may be pain when brilliance is not around, but it is still worth it.
-Storyteller
@ Anon - Really? You believe that? Wondering, why go through the 'pain' and not try to attain permanent brilliance? You are saying, if you have experienced brilliance once, you will be content in leading a mediocre life thereon? Isn't that harder than never have had experienced brilliance at all? If that's the choice you're making, I would be very inquisitive to know why, cuz in my opinion its foolishness, besides it goes against, like I mentioned, basic human tendencies! But again, to each his own.
Quite frankly, and I mean it in the least nasty way, the words sound too lofty and unrealistic, the 'storyteller's' narrative.
and this is another one to the large list of posts i have seen on mediocrity! everyone has a fetish with mediocrity.. we all love it dont we :)
-himanshu
@ Himanshu - :) True True. Except they talk about how it is all around and they want to get rid of it. Ever seen anyone writing about getting into it? :P
well said or written! that's the whole point of the game - strive, strive & strive some more. keep on striving on & on & on & on!! & then what? because anyway we're not going to appreciate even if we get what we strove for. because then we'll be striving for more fuck... i thought we were different but i'm surprised that we think quite alike.
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