The Disease of Being Average
By: Ryan Sagers
Tags: Self Improvement, Distraction, Focus, Productivity, Self Help

Over the last few days, I’ve been hit with a debilitating illness. It’s not something that’s kept me in bed, and I’m hoping (although I could be wrong) that it’s not contagious. I haven’t thrown up, coughed, sneezed, or even had a headache.

But then again, this disease doesn’t normally manifest itself outwardly. It’s internal. I call it the disease of being average. Every now and again it flares up, and when it does, it has a unique power to quickly derail many of your short-term hopes, dreams, and ambitions. I hate it. But it’s hard to shake.

So what is this mysterious disease of being average?

I believe it’s when you can’t push yourself to do anything more than what’s required of you.

The disease of being average is very different than the disease of underperforming or being unreliable. Those two illnesses can be challenging in their own right, but usually manifest themselves in an external way — meaning the people around you notice. The tricky part about being average is that no one knows you have the disease but yourself. It’s completely internal. In fact, for some, they can’t even sense that they’ve contracted it. Only when you grasp your personal worth and potential as a human being can you truly understand the disease.

You see, when you’re underperforming or when you’ve become unreliable, many people around you will see that. You’ll get comments from bosses, from co-workers and from friends. Your performance metrics will take a dip. You may lose out on standard bonuses or fun social outings simply because you’ve lost the trust of those who are counting on you.

However, when you’re struck with the disease of being average, the status quo remains the same, and no one around you blinks an eye. Being average means you do everything you’re told to do at work and that the quality of the work remains at acceptable standards. Being average means you continue to hangout with your friends and be exactly who you’ve always been, with no extra effort to make someone feel special or show an increase of love. Being average means you play your role in your family, whether that be as a parent or a child to the standard that people would expect of you, but nothing more. Being average means you spend your free time in rudimentary, wasteful, but acceptable ways, like by watching hours of Netflix or sleeping in past 11am.

The difficulty with breaking free from the disease of being average is that most everyone around you has it! In many cases, it’s what the world expects. So when you compare yourself to others (which, unfortunately, we all do) you feel like you’re not falling far behind. Sure you have that one friend that seems like a crazy overachiever, but outside of him/her you’re doing about as well as everyone else. Everything you’re doing is status quo. Everything you’re doing is socially acceptable. So why change? And how do you get the motivation to change?

Understanding the cause

I think the biggest challenge that we face today in overcoming this disease is that of distraction. We live in a world today where entertainment is everywhere and access to it is all but unlimited. Distraction keeps us from doing our best work. Distraction mires us in the slog of average.

A study reported by MarketWatch says that we average over 11 hours of media consumption. PER DAY. Keep in mind there are only 24 hours in a day and 8 of them are typically spent sleeping. So of the remaining 16 hours, about 69% of our time is spent in front of a screen consuming media. And to make matters worse, the trend is increasing. Each year, more and more of our time is spent in front of a screen as a consumer of media.

So think about your day for a second with these things in mind. Is there any wonder why you haven’t accomplished everything you’ve hoped to do? How can any of us expect to do something meaningful, something truly great with our lives when the majority of our waking hours are spent glued to a screen, laughing at hilarious memes or binge-watching the latest series?

Take a look at the graphic below. It gives a general breakdown on how much time the average American is spending between social media apps.

This is insane. For me personally, the individual clocks are different (a good chunk of my social media time is spent on Twitter, with very little time spent on FB, Insta, or YouTube, and zero time spent on SnapChat) but the total time period is likely about the same.

Isn’t it kind of depressing to consider that time is our most valuable resource here on earth, and yet we’re spending a lot of it doing absolutely nothing?

Sure I can justify my time on Twitter… I can say things like: “I just want to stay up to date on everything in the NBA.” Or, “I’m finding really great articles and blog post written by top tech leaders. I’m sure I can learn a lot reading them.” Or, “It’s vital that I stay current with the major news and political events of our time if I’m to be an informed citizen.”

These are the lies I tell myself daily. And guess what, I know just about everything that happens in the NBA, and I know about it the second it happens (thank you Woj). I read countless articles written by VCs, CEOs, Startup gurus, and many others about how to start, run, and operate a business (most of them just say to work hard and don’t be distracted… whoops). I am very informed about the political direction of this country and I can talk endlessly about X policy or Y controversy on any given day (this depresses me more often than not).

But what good has any of this information done me? What have I been able to accomplish because of it? What major contribution have I made to society because of my aptitude with Twitter’s app?

The answer is simple: This information has done nothing. Nothing for me and nothing to make the world a better place. It’s been nothing more than a distraction to keep me chained to the wall of mediocrity.

I’d love to invite you to take a little bit of time and reflect on your own distractions.

Many of us have smartphones, tablets, laptops, and televisions. Some of us have cable while others choose to pay for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. A lot of us have both. If that’s not enough we can find and consume millions of videos and streams for free on sites like YouTube or Reddit. There is never a shortage of news articles to read, blogs to visit, podcasts to listen to, feeds to scroll, streaks to maintain, ideas to retweet, or pictures to like.

The point is, there is just so much material in the world to distract us that it’s truly astounding when anyone accomplishes something truly meaningful in life. It’s a wonder that anyone can break free from the disease of being average when all these things are designed to keep us ill for the rest of our lives.

I would argue that in 2019, despite our incredible advances in technology, the internet, and education, and despite the readily available access to books, blogs, capital and mentorship, it’s never been more difficult in the history of mankind to achieve something truly great.

Some people call it the “Information Age” but I’m just calling it how it is — we live in the “Distraction Age” and we’re being brought down as a society because of it.

So what can we do

There is no easy way to fight distraction when our lives are completely immersed in it. There’s so much pressure to be up to date on everything, so much FOMO within our social groups, and so much anxiety about keeping with the latest trends, that unless you’re truly dedicated to personal greatness, you’ll never break free.

The first step is to recognize your weaknesses. What are the sites, apps, entertainment options, etc. that keep you from being your best self. For me, it’s probably a mix of Twitter and Netflix. To break free of the disease of being average I need to drastically reduce the time spent between those two applications.

The second step is to make plans to fill that time with productive, passionate work. If you want to actually achieve personal greatness and quit floundering in the seas of the mediocre, it’s time to set some goals and get moving on them. What type of things are you going to do with your newly discovered free time? The temptation will just be to find a new place to waste it. Fight this at all costs. Tim Ferriss once said something to the effect of “system over will power.” Basically, this means that unless we have a system or a series of goal or check-list items in place, our will power will naturally falter and we’ll go right back to being average. It’s critical to not just have something to work on, but something that you’re going to be passionate about, something that will excite and challenge you. Find this and go for it.

The final step is to be relentless. You’re a human being so you’ll undoubtedly fall short of a goal every now and again. I have a hard time believing any of us can ever truly break free from all distractions (unless you do something really drastic and live like famed movie director Christopher Nolan who reportedly doesn’t own a cell phone). So when you do fall into a slump, just go back and repeat steps one and two. You can also reverse course and try again. This is what will ultimately make you great. The vast majority of human beings will stay mired in distraction while the good ones, the ones that will actually make a difference in society, will find a way to consistently overcome the pull of averageness.

Final thought

I sometimes like to imagine what it’d be like if the Founding Fathers of the United States had iPhones. Do you think we’d be anywhere close to where we are today? Had Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, Madison or any other of the legendary founders of this nation had a smartphone with access to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and every other distraction that’s placed before us on a daily basis, I think they might have fallen ill to the disease of average just like you or me. The opportunity, freedom, and prosperity that this country offers could have looked very different than they do today.

But who know…perhaps they could have fought it. These were incredible humans after all. But it’s just interesting to think about in the context of today’s world. Because ultimately, I think we are all very similar beings. The vast majority of us are prone to the same types of distractions. We can all do amazing things if we allow ourselves to truly focus on what we’re trying to achieve.

So whatever you do, don’t despair. Personal greatness is just on the other side of Instagram feed. All you have to do is close it and get to work.