We spend an awful lot of time talking about success, accomplishment and excellence. Sadly, it seems to be so ingrained in society that people often end up suffering from stress, strokes and heart attacks in their pursuits of often unattainable ideals.
Somehow, we label these things as being an essential part of our quality of life, but in a lot of cases a closer look suggests that a lot of (well meaning, no doubt!) folks have somehow mixed up "quality" and "quantity" of life.
Evening Reflections: late afternoon sun on rippling water
What are we Striving For?
Personally, I am far more interested in having the best pile, rather than the biggest pile. Now some people might go all "I want it all" on me and say "But I want BOTH!"
The eternal drive for more of everything.
But that's only part of the picture.
A lot of times, we end up turning our back on "the ordinary" and the "average," condemning them for not being part of "excellence."
A long time ago (probably 20 years) I wrote an article about whether or not "Leadership" was an overvalued ambition in the world, and especially in the US of A. At the time, I was closer to my (thankfully!) now long gone tenure in Korporate Amerika and I was questioning the obsession with leadership... and labeling it "destructive."
My reasoning: If the idea is that everyone strives to LEAD, who the hell is left over to FOLLOW? And if everyone is taught that leadership is the measure of success... then (by default) the state of NOT-leading must imply that you're some kind of failure.
Meaning that all the average, ordinary and perfectly adequate in our world is — in essence — a "fail."
Evening sun reflecting off the water
Excellence... and Failure: The Psychological Fallout
Failure is an interesting beast, from a psychological perspective. Some people — let's call them a "significant minority" — possess an eternally optimistic approach to life and seem to be able to shake off failure and move on very easily.
Most people don't find it so easy. That promotion to manager you didn't get weighs heavily and feels a bit like a stink wet bear sitting on your head.
And then we start negative self-talk and berating ourselves for not getting the promotion.
A few years ago, I remember having a discussion with some of my relatives back in Denmark, concerning the nature of work.
The discussion came up because one of my cousins was working for a company that had recently been acquired by a US corporation, and the (All Danish) employees were wondering what sort of changes there might be to the company culture. One of the other people present had also spent a couple of years working in Boston, in the US and brought his experiences to bear.
After some very interesting discussions, we eventually came to the understanding that US culture has very little "space" for those who are OK with simply "being good at something."
Panning out for a wider view... it is the "Golden Hour."
The "Failure" of the Ordinary
We look down on people who are taxi drivers, or foodservice people, or retail salespeople... and consider their work "grunt" labor.
In many parts of the world, that isn't true. Another cousin of mine is — in essence — a "career" server at a long time eating establishment. That position — in Denmark — is not viewed as "losing" in any way... it's neither particularly honorable, but certainly not DIShonorable, it simply is. There are no negative connotations there. He's very good at what he does, he earns a "decent" living and is perfectly content.
He's certainly not a "leader," nor has he ever wanted to be.
But lets get back to the Average and Ordinary, and to having a little appreciation for it.
Let's be real here: The world wouldn't work without it! The world wouldn't work without the perfectly normal cars, or the regular jobs, or the "pretty good" sandwiches, or the comfortable but not particularly stylish clothes.
The entire fabric of life is held together by a certain "comfortable middle."
So let us worry a little less about leadership and success, on a global scale.
Sun setting behind the eucalyptus tree
This has been a "perfectly ordinary" post, illustrated with "perfectly ordinary" photos of sun reflecting on water, late in the evening.
How about YOU? Were you brought up with "Leadership" as the all-important thing people should strive for? Do you consider yourself a "leader?" Do you think the ordinary (but solidly functional) is undervalued and underappreciated in our society? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180730 00:20 PDT