For time immorial we have been told to be really good at one thing, to be passionate about that one thing, persist with it and give it all. Our parents tolds us, our teachers injected the same idea and employers don't miss this word "passionate" or "excellent" at all. Nowadays, "excellent" has been replaced by the more catchy "kickass" or "rocking". But I guess they all mean the same, that you should be the best at doing something and that one thing should be your identity. Are some bells ringing? However, the crushing truth is that not all of us are at the top of the herd. Most of us are average. We are good at what we do or want to do but we are not the best at that. However that doesn't take away the fact that we really enjoy doing what we do. So, what am I trying to get at? Please sail with me and we will find a shore.
We grow up trying to find our passion. We explore some things that interest us and pursue some of them. It can be a career, a hobby, just about anything. However, some of us realize that although we think we are capable of doing a decent job at that, we are not a champion in that field. And that point of realization can be very depressing. But soon we realize that although we are not as inherently talented or intelligent as the next guy, we can still stay afloat. How? Well, there are many ways and you can choose your own recipe. Some options are persistence, hard work, working systematically on a plan, and we can fine tune these to suit your need or even apply a hybrid approach. So, the point is being average is not a limitation. In fact we have no control over intelligence or talent. What we do have is an urge to get to the top, a desire to sit next to that smart guy and not feel stupid and an above average thinking. We all know this, right? But as strange it may sound, people are intimidated by the smarter guy. So much so that they feel, "There is no way I can be like him/her!" So it makes sense that we actually realize this or else we are going to kill that average guy inside us who could have done great things even with those average skills.
We get it now. It is okay to be average. Let's explore a little more. There is a common phenomenon with average people like us. We are confused. We are confused about what we really want to do. We don't find an answer long enough and in the process some of us take the safe route to avoid risking too much in the adventurous journey of searching for that elusive answer. And these "some of us" are not losers; no, not at all. Most of us live under the pressure of expectations and insecurity. So, if you don't find an answer for long then you can park it for some time. Secure yourself. Give your loved one the life you had dreamt of giving them. But don't stop chasing that question "What do I really want?" And when you get an answer and are in a position to pursue that answer then don't cheat yourself then. Don't give up on your chase to settle for a safer and easier option. We have heard people saying, "Life doesn't give you many chances." However I like to believe that it is us who don't give ourselves that many chances. If we do, we can get to the point when we can make that chance count.
We all have different expectations from life and want to do different things in life. Success means different things to different people. However, there is one thing that is common between all of us. We all want to be happy and there's no refuting that. Some of us are happy playing an instrument, some watching movies, some writing code (I had to include this as an example :D) and there could be so many things. However, I feel all of us miss one point, that is, life is not meant to be unidimensional; it has many dimensions. So, if we try to align our life along one of them, it is not going work out. It is unnatural in my opinion. We should explore life along multiple dimensions and we can be average along every dimension. It does not matter as long as we are happy and also manage to keep some people around us happy. Sometimes exploring life also leads us unexpectedly to something we never thought we would enjoy. Sometimes it might turn out that we are actually above average in that.
We are finally getting nearer to the shore that I had promised about. We are all born innocent and ignorant. We grow up with dreams of making it big in life. We all want to be rockstars in our own right. But gradually we start seeing that we are not as gifted as someone else. We are not as cool as the "dude" in the neighbourhood. And that's when it gets tricky. The crux here is the realization that being average is not our limitation because that's what most of us are. The actual handicap is an average thought process and a drop in our expectation from life. And we should never let this happen to us. If we can keep thinking big and keep doing a little more than usual, we can unlock our true potential. We should keep giving ourselves chances to do what makes us happy. I would like to drive home the thought that perhaps we don't really need to take life as seriously as we do. If we give life a little more room to take its own course then it might start flowing more freely and the ride will become more joyous. Recently I came across a quote that says, "It is okay to be confused as long as life is fun with that confusion." It makes so much sense. If exploring life is fun till you find you real goal then it is fine. We can keep doing what we enjoy and may be take a leap of faith that things will eventually fall into place.
Being average is good. Let us not pull ourselves down because of that. It gives us a reason to push ourselves a little but more and make our work above average. This sounds feasible and optimistic at the same time. And thus we have reached the shore we were trying to get to. Life can be fun if we keep sailing with the tide even if we are clueless about the direction at present.
