Average Sucks!

Happy National Margarita Day!

I will definitely be celebrating this afternoon, but my thoughts this morning are on average, and just how low the bar is set for us to be exceptional. For example, the average American only drinks five margaritas a year. What the hell is that all about? Can we not do better than that? I am going to have several today to do my part in raising the bar.

On Wednesday night, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of extraordinary student leaders at Texas State. They are all anxious about life after college and achieving “success,” whatever that means. The world is changing rapidly and there is tremendous uncertainty in the job market. I told them to chill out because life is graded on a curve and average sucks.

Average spends seven hours per day consuming mindless content on a screen.

Average is twenty-five pounds over their ideal body weight.

Average only gets 17 minutes of exercise per day.

Average reads below a sixth-grade level.

Average could not come up with $1,500 in an emergency.

Average carries $6,500 in credit card debt.

Average has only 3.6 close friends.

Average doesn’t vote in primary elections.

Average takes 4.2 tries to solve the Wordle.

And don’t forget that half the country has a below-average IQ (which explains a lot).

This is not that hard. Don’t be average. Fight the culture and all the forces that are desperately trying to get you to conform to the mean in every aspect of life. The culture wants to drag you down into the middling muck with everyone else. Don’t go there. Refuse to drift to the mean. Find people who push you to grow. Be that person for someone else.

Average actions do not produce extraordinary results.

Choose to be extraordinary. And screw “balance”! We have been watching the Olympics for the past two weeks and are in awe of the inspiring performances and stories of the athletes. Do you think that they lead balanced lives? Of course not. They have chosen to pursue excellence in one thing and have pushed aside everything else for a time to achieve a goal. They are exceptional, and we admire them for it.

Think about this while you sip your margarita this afternoon. We’ve got to get those numbers up.