11 de Febrero 2004
" Excellence is the enemy of Mediocre...and I must crush my enemies LMAO "
Sooo...I'm combing through our files for sample risk management policies and come across this quote in an article:
"Why let the fact that you are barely adequate in almost all respects depress you or make you unhappy? After all, someone has to be average. It may as well be you."
After a few hearty OMG's and much laughter out loud, I stopped doing what I was supposed to be doing and skimmed through the rest of that article. Other quotes that leapt out at me include:
"Do you strive for perfection? Do you spend countless hours doing and redoing just to get something right?...If so you may be a victim of perfection compulsion, the relentless drive to achieve excellence regardless of the cost in dollars or time. Yet deep in your heart you know that you are not up to the task...Yet you keep trying anyway and as a result you become unhappier and more dissatisfied every day. Now comes a startling revelation--excellence is a sucker's game!"
This quote and plenty others, in addition to making me chuckle, set off a light bulb. I've been thinking this way for at least the last couple years -- no, how long have I been at this job? Make that almost 3 years. I gave up striving for "excellence" because, not only did people expect less, I'd never get anything from it, but more headaches, more work, and we all know I am inherently lazy. Particularly about ish I don't give a damn about. As the author also said: "Accept mediocrity and find peace." My sentiments exactly!!
So yes, this article is probably tongue-in-cheek, but I find it to rather on point. As he stated, "In a world were the bar is constantly being raised higher, where better and faster are the ultimate values, you will learn to cultivate a healthy fear of excellence and come to appreciate that oftentimes, 'just okay' is plenty good enough." Well, I find that to be true more often than not. And while I appreciate that I not much effort is needed to impress anyone, the one critical flaw in this thinking is that constant mediocrity never allows you to fully express yourself. And I find it hinders your growth process. You can't push yourself and test or expand your limits if you let the "I don't really give a damn" attitude go unrestrained.
I think about my team members, one of which is clearly an "excellence striver" and I know I will NEVER be as driven about this ish as she. Nor do I try. As the author stated: "Is our search for excellence getting in the way of real achievement? We love to pat ourselves on the back for doing a quality job, but what do we really accomplish?" This particular team member is notorious for redoing stuff over and over again, and asking for input and buy-in, and I humor her for the sake of my amusement until those days when I've had enough and tell her to just let it fly (that's my mediocrity rising to the top!!) But I say forget excellence, and do what you can because, mediocre wins every time. Who is really gonna check you anyway?
So far, it's gotten me through nearly 3 years of this...sentence, but that flaw in this thinking haunts me because I realize I've wasted 3 years being mediocre and perhaps that is why I really can't pull off this job search with success. THIS place may promote mediocrity, but the rest of the world seemingly hasn't caught on yet, so I gots to get my act together if I am ever to find gainful employment elsewhere and teach them the virtues of shucking excellence!
But anyway, I need to get back to what I was supposed to being doing in the first place -- finding those risk management guides. But let me leave with another hilarious quote from this article:
"Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible."
THAT starts a whole nutha conversation entirely ROFLMAO
Sooo...I'm combing through our files for sample risk management policies and come across this quote in an article:
"Why let the fact that you are barely adequate in almost all respects depress you or make you unhappy? After all, someone has to be average. It may as well be you."
After a few hearty OMG's and much laughter out loud, I stopped doing what I was supposed to be doing and skimmed through the rest of that article. Other quotes that leapt out at me include:
"Do you strive for perfection? Do you spend countless hours doing and redoing just to get something right?...If so you may be a victim of perfection compulsion, the relentless drive to achieve excellence regardless of the cost in dollars or time. Yet deep in your heart you know that you are not up to the task...Yet you keep trying anyway and as a result you become unhappier and more dissatisfied every day. Now comes a startling revelation--excellence is a sucker's game!"
This quote and plenty others, in addition to making me chuckle, set off a light bulb. I've been thinking this way for at least the last couple years -- no, how long have I been at this job? Make that almost 3 years. I gave up striving for "excellence" because, not only did people expect less, I'd never get anything from it, but more headaches, more work, and we all know I am inherently lazy. Particularly about ish I don't give a damn about. As the author also said: "Accept mediocrity and find peace." My sentiments exactly!!
So yes, this article is probably tongue-in-cheek, but I find it to rather on point. As he stated, "In a world were the bar is constantly being raised higher, where better and faster are the ultimate values, you will learn to cultivate a healthy fear of excellence and come to appreciate that oftentimes, 'just okay' is plenty good enough." Well, I find that to be true more often than not. And while I appreciate that I not much effort is needed to impress anyone, the one critical flaw in this thinking is that constant mediocrity never allows you to fully express yourself. And I find it hinders your growth process. You can't push yourself and test or expand your limits if you let the "I don't really give a damn" attitude go unrestrained.
I think about my team members, one of which is clearly an "excellence striver" and I know I will NEVER be as driven about this ish as she. Nor do I try. As the author stated: "Is our search for excellence getting in the way of real achievement? We love to pat ourselves on the back for doing a quality job, but what do we really accomplish?" This particular team member is notorious for redoing stuff over and over again, and asking for input and buy-in, and I humor her for the sake of my amusement until those days when I've had enough and tell her to just let it fly (that's my mediocrity rising to the top!!) But I say forget excellence, and do what you can because, mediocre wins every time. Who is really gonna check you anyway?
So far, it's gotten me through nearly 3 years of this...sentence, but that flaw in this thinking haunts me because I realize I've wasted 3 years being mediocre and perhaps that is why I really can't pull off this job search with success. THIS place may promote mediocrity, but the rest of the world seemingly hasn't caught on yet, so I gots to get my act together if I am ever to find gainful employment elsewhere and teach them the virtues of shucking excellence!
But anyway, I need to get back to what I was supposed to being doing in the first place -- finding those risk management guides. But let me leave with another hilarious quote from this article:
"Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible."
THAT starts a whole nutha conversation entirely ROFLMAO
posted by sj-the-infamous at 6:56 PM
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