Can You Be Averagely Great or Greatly Average?
Posted on Balanced Lifestyle, Balanced Mind and Soul | March 6, 2010 | 16 Comments
This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!
Image by We live in a great world full of miracles and wonderful people. Every day something amazing is going on in this world and we all want to be part of that.
You have probably heard how wonderful it is to be great and how important it is to find your “greatness” in life. You know, everybody has something great about them, sometimes we just do not know what it is. Being great means that you are not average, you are not just a dot in the picture of life, you are a star.
I think, though, that greatness can be a burden. Not everybody should be great (at least all the time) because this greatness can ruin your life. I feel that sometimes you just need to be average. Give me a few seconds before you start completely disagreeing with me and showering this post with infuriated comments.
I was watching the Olympics this year and I saw some of the greatest people on our planet (at least in the physical sense.) Even the ones who didn’t qualify but still got to the Olympics are great examples of human strength, determination and will power in my opinion.
However, I felt bad for some of the athletes, especially the ones who got medals in the previous Olympic Games. The entire world was expecting them to be great and to perform excellent this year. If they didn’t perform as well as they were supposed to they were criticized and analyzed by all those sports experts. The world was expecting more greatness of them than they could deliver.
When you feel the pressure that you need to be great your life loses joy and happiness. Imagine that you are in a bad mood and somebody comes up to you and tells you “You must be happy and joyous right now!” Even if you decide to try being happy you will probably fail completely and your mood will only worsen.
The same thing happens with greatness. When you hear on every corner (ok, every personal development blog or publication) that you need to be great in something you feel pressure. This pressure blocks your creativity and your thoughts, so instead of being great you become stuck.
Let’s say that you know the area where you are great. You accept that part of yourself and treasure it in any possible way. Soon you start feeling that you are not great enough. If you fail in some other areas of your life you feel disappointed and your life loses happiness again.
There is a balance between being great and being average. It might seem very weird but I think that “averageness” (I know there is no such word, but let’s pretend there is) at some point leads to greatness.
I do not know about you but sometimes I feel very calm and relaxed realizing that I am average. I do not have to push myself too hard trying to show my greatness to the entire world, I do not have to spend every minute of my life thinking what part of me is actually great. I can just live in the present moment, breathe and be happy because my life is flowing like a calm and magnificent river.
At the moments when I allow myself to be average I am surfing the waves of life gathering strength to go against the current or to move faster if I need to. This is a way for me to recharge and relax.
A person living a balanced life can find just the right balance of “greatness” and “averageness” that will make them happy. It is important to relax sometimes and to be just an average person. On the other hand if you keep that up for too long then your life will lose its spark. From a surfer you will turn into a piece of wood that does not have any control over its fate.
I want to hear your comments, what part of your life is great and when you want to feel average. Do you need this balance or do you choose to be great all the time?
Keep it balanced!
P.S. For more balanced reading please check out my guest post at Good Life Zen, How to Know What Your Life Is Missing.
Smart Thoughts (16)
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Hello,
See I actually believe that the default state of the average person is greatness, and that supposedly great people are the average person. As far as the worlds expectations you have to learn to ignore those. You are the only one who will live with the full consequences of your life, anyone who will not be directly impacted can be blocked out. We must not shrink down from what we can really do.
“We must soar like eagles; not to look down on others but to cause others to look up.”~Eleanoor Roosevelt
Anastasiya,
Thanks for your post. I guess I wonder about the definition of greatness. For example, I think of my grandmother: she was a great woman (a holy woman in the Christian sense), but she wasn’t well-known. She had a tremendous impact on the lives of people who knew her.
I think there are different ways to look at greatness. Tiger Woods is a great golfer, maybe the best; but he hadn’t been living a virtuous life. Let’s hope he can get on track. My grandmother was just a great woman. She was virtuous. She didn’t necessarily have any extraordinary talents (although she was a great cook!); it was her virtue and faith that defined her greatness.
What type of greatness should we desire? I think we should all desire the greatness of virtue: we don’t have to be famous, we just need to live upright lives and try to influence as many people as possible where ever we find ourselves.
Our lives can be appear to be average because we’re not on the world stage; but our average lives can end up influencing countless people.
Peace!
I loved this post Anastasiya and I can totally see where you are coming from. I’ll tell you my take on the whole greartness topic. For me greatness mostly relates to you finding what you are good at and choosing to do it. You don’t strive, but at the same time you don’t supress yourself. I think you made a great point that greatness that brings you stress where you constantly have to push yourself is not what you would wnat to do if you want to be happy and at peace. I think greatness that does brings happiness and peace is the one of choice – I know what I am good at, I know what I am passionate about and I choose to do it. Obviously I won’t be doing it 100% of the time but I choose to dedicate to it a big part of my time. It is more about releasing the fear of being and doing what you love and what you are good at than about constant pressure to be great. That’s my definition of greatness, the one that does put you in the flow and doesn’t feel like striving. Trying to be great at everything is definitely going to put pressure. Being average is good as long as you don’t supress the part of you that want to be great.
Justin, Fr. Michael, Lana,
Greatness might have different definitions for different people. But in general greatness is something extraordinary, something that is not seen on every corner, something that brings out goodness and virtue in people, something that makes them shine.
I think that greatness is overcommercialized these days and this disturbs balance in life. Of course depending on the definition of greatness that you choose and your own attitude to it you will feel differently about it.
All of us are different and even the person who thinks of himself as an average Joe or Jane is great in some way. I think that being average a lot of times means accepting yourself the way you are (with your imperfections and drawbacks) and this acceptance will lead to greatness.
Being average might also mean staying away from pride because you humble yourself and see that you are just a person trying to do your best with the life you have. Being humble (not proud) leads to greatness.
Being average might also mean not pushing yourself too hard and not turning into a some type of -holic (e.g. workaholic).
It means pursuing your passion without getting obsessed over it.
As I’ve already said greatness and averageness are two opposites that we find in life and being able to balance them at some point is the essential survival strategy for us. It means knowing who you are, knowing your strengths and weaknesses and accepting both of them equally.
I can so relate to this! I actually LIKE being average. Maybe it is the pressure of greatness I shy away from, maybe it’s simple genetics. Who knows? But I am HAPPY where my life is. Fame or fortune to me is intimidating. Power is scary. What if I abuse it? Or lose control?
I feel a pressure to be great at work and there I do strive for that. I want to be the best in my field. As far as writing…what I write I want to be the best but just for me personally. I don’t have to have praise.
The Olympics amaze me. The sheer talent of the greatest in the world competing in front of our very eyes. How awe-inspiring! I am always moved by it, no matter the outcome of who wins or loses. Maybe that is how we all should view life. In awe, at the greatness around us.
I loved your point about “awe” Angelia. It is much deeper than miracle or greatness and it is what our life should really be about. When we live with awe we stop worrying about little things that are not important and start admiring everything around us as well as ourselves. Awe can really give the feeling of blissful joy and serenity that a lot of us are seeking in our daily lives.
It seems that all the commentators discuss the important point that a lot of this depends on your idea of greatness. If greatness is defined by other people’s expectations then you surely will fail. If greatness is defined by the great sense of inner bliss and love that one has for everything, no pressure
Thanks for stopping by Kevin.
After reading all wonderful comments that everybody left on this post I have looked at this post from a completely different point of view.
Greatness out of virtue is really not hard and it is very natural. However, this is usually not that type of greatness that we hear about a lot. Compulsory greatness is the one we should stay away from to maintain healthy life balance.
Hi Anastasiya,
I was reading this and knew exactly what you were talking about. Excellent post that raises so many good points and questions. It made me ask myself how is it in my life. It hit me that I now focus on what makes me happy. For me to be at peace and happy (joyous) with whatever I do, IS the Greatness itself. Somewhere along the way I redefined what “greatness” means to me. And it is no longer tied into any external feedback. It is ONLY tied to whether “I” am doing what “I” love and what makes ME happy. AND, am doing what I do for ME?
As long as I am coming from my own heart’s desire and am being fully me, it doesn’t matter what context others put my outcome in. I set my own goals and rewards. Anything else is someone elses feelings/response to deal with, not mine. In this way, I can even do something that to others may appear mediocre but for me is brilliant as I may never have done it before, or it may be the first time that I had a subtle shift in insight or ability, etc.
Thank you for a wonderfully insightful post. It gave me the opportunity to look inside and see more clearly who I am and how I feel. Hugs, Robin
Thank you for your wonderful comment Robin. Your comment was full of insights on its own and it can be transformed in a completely different post.
You are right that happiness and joy is what matters the most in the end. If your greatness only brings trouble and headaches than what is the point of this greatness? On the other hand if you feel comfortable in your own place, living your life and doing what you are doing then it is the purest greatness.
Thanks for giving me the realization that there is much joy and greatness in being average most of the time! I can do that, no problem. It is really about having an attitude of kindness and compassion towards yourself, and accepting yourself…warts and all.
Hi Debbie,
acceptance is really at the root of any happy and balanced living. There is no point in jumping over your head trying to be Somebody if you are already somebody where you are.
“This pressure blocks your creativity and your thoughts, so instead of being great you become stuck.”
This is how it goes with me, but there are people who works better under the pressure.
Can I feel average and great at the same time? I feel exactly that way.
I love your post. Balance is key. Keep on the “Great” end too long and we experience burnout, stay on the “Average” end to long and we experience apathy. It really is all about balance.
Thank you! It was just recently I was commenting on a blog about the five most common stumbling blocks for completing projects to success that I was trying to express some of these very thoughts. One of my stumbling blocks (which wasn’t listed) is the fear of success bringing on expectations of repeat performances as “good” as or somehow “better” in the future if I complete my current project well and on time. It wasn’t about MY expectations (well, OK, maybe a little), but the perception that it should then be easy for a repeat performance. I dealt with this SO much in the working world, especially being a woman breaking down gender barriers. So, again, thank you for your words, which I may borrow as both a mantra and explanation for others. ~~annie
Hi Annie,
Whenever I get to the point where expectations and pressure overwhelm the happiness of being great (an any sense) I enjoy doing some simple things that I am average in. Reminding myself that I am just a human and I do not need to be great 24/7 is always a good way for me to release some tension and stress.
I am glad that you have found this post helpful.
I know how it feels to expect more of yourself than you feel comfortable with and his is not a pleasant feeling