What does the world have against mediocrity or even average, I wonder? And why the obsession with excellence? Average is accepted as normal, albeit with an amount of condescension, but mediocrity carries judgement and derision in the very tone it is uttered in, despite them being synonyms.

Just look at some of the other synonyms of ‘mediocre’ that the thesaurus threw up:

Dull, inferior, middling, ordinary, second-rate, so-so, undistinguished, uninspired, characterless, common, standard, fair to middling, insignificant, no great shakes, of poor quality, pedestrian, run-of-the-mill, tolerable, unexceptional.

What a load of negative connotations! Middling, ordinary, standard and common are fine, but second-rate? Characterless? Isn’t that hitting below the belt? While it is important for individuals to improve themselves and to do their best, condemning them or their work is not the way to motivate them.

Read this article that attributes mediocrity to every imaginable character flaw and undesirable behaviour to know what I am talking about.

How can everyone be ‘excellent’ for heaven’s sake? Even in a race, someone is ahead of you, and you are ahead of someone else. Being excellent doesn’t mean there was no one better than you or is not going to be, after your excellent performance. Ok, so someone attains ‘excellence’ at something. Then what? Try to become ‘more’ excellent as someone is bound to come along and do one better? And what is the goal of this upward spiral? And thereby hangs all the tension of those in the rat race of excellence, starting with stressed out children, not sparing even elders in their 70s and 80s!

It might be argued that excellence or being the ‘best’, at least in academics, the filters for selection into elite institutions is getting finer by the day. How else would they do it, you ask?

Don’t get me wrong. This is not to knock excellence. Not at all. We need all the excellence — great scientists and inventers, experts and brilliant minds in all other fields. The world wouldn’t have reached where it is today, had it not been for the geniuses. But can brilliance be learnt? Is genius taught? How can someone who is not of that calibre be pushed to excel? We are talking here of the world of competition that goads everyone to achieve excellence in academics, sports, work, career….you name it.

Talking of average, it is no doubt useful in solving arithmetic problems even finding some statistic about the average rainfall in a region. But using it as a scale to measure someone’s status in life? Someone who is average in academic intelligence might be ‘excellent’ in relationships; another who is deemed to be average in financial success might be brilliant in networking or some such skill set. So, on what scale can these people be weighed and graded as average, mediocre or excellent?

Sometimes I feel excellence is highly overrated.

I can think of a hundred advantages about being mediocre or average. For starters, did it ever occur to you that no one can get to be ‘excellent’ if there were no average or mediocre people to measure against?

Secondly, being a ‘jack of all trades’ is a darn sight better than being a ‘master of ONE’? I proudly claim to be in the first category! We might hire the best workman to do a complicated piece of work, but when a tap or the broken leg of a table needs to be fixed, we would rather go to a ‘good enough’ workman, right?

Even at the workplace, the average or ‘good enough’ is sufficient to get a job done as perfectionism (a synonym for excellence), can not only delay a project, but might often be unnecessary. A perfectionist boss, with a superiority complex to boot, can be intimidating, making his subordinates fear and even resent him. As a dear friend pointed out, a person of average accomplishment is more approachable and understanding when a junior needs guidance.

Also, perfectionism can often stall projects — when there is no need to be ‘excellent’ but ‘good enough’ would suffice to complete the work in time. This is especially so for creative work like writing and art as evaluating such work is subjective at best. Ask me. I am my worst critic, endlessly researching, refining and editing a piece, thus delaying their publication. It is only recently that I am learning to accept that my sense of perfectionism is just holding me back from putting down my thoughts and ideas. After all, isn’t that the aim of writing?

Coming to the benefits, being average gives the freedom to fly under the radar and do a whole host of things being out of the rat-race, limelight and constant scrutiny by the world. According to some psychologists, having all these advantages actually helps creativity and trying out new things.

Finally, all those who want to reject anything or anyone average should remember that the world will grind to a halt without them, who form the vast majority. Granted that an average person might not become a rocket scientist, but could still be an assistant to the scientist, or maybe involved in routine work that is needed in the lab and outside. Who will do the low-end, routine jobs if everyone is ‘excellent’ eh? Haven’t we heard of tosh management degree holders strut around as if they knew everything, but without a clue as to what is holding up the assembly line, till the ‘mediocre’ worker not only knew what was wrong and even how to fix it!

One should be envious of such blessed souls, who have the ‘enough’ mindset and have escaped the comparison trap and its attendant stress and dissatisfaction. They might have a boring life in the world’s opinion, but many are contended and at peace with the world. While it is important for everyone to do their best at whatever they are doing, regardless of whether they are average or mediocre, it is high time the world gave them a break!

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