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People think and act in diverging ways. The fact is that most are average, do average things, and achieve average results in life. However, people within the bell curve will often strive to get out of it. They will seek out motivation, work hard, and stress themselves to prove that they are not average. Students are consistently pushed to be above average in their academic achievement.
Meanwhile, employees habitually have a hope of recognition dangled in front of them with one hand, as the other speeds up the metaphorical treadmill on which they sprint. It very much seems to be within a human’s nature to want to stand out from the crowd and be known to others. Some of those around you will use this very human desire to encourage people to improve, while others will look to exploit it.
This article hopes to motivate you to be seen as average, while striving for success as you normally would.
It hopes to pique your interest in protecting what you’ve worked hard to build from unnecessary, hurtful, competition.
The Pitfalls of Being Labeled Special
Whilst on your journey to become extraordinary, the pitfalls involved get harder to navigate around the further that you travel. The target on your back will grow as your influence spreads. Much like you were once the average person working toward becoming an extraordinary one, there is an army on your heels trying to do the same.
The more of an extraordinary position you assume in the eyes of others, the brighter the target placed on you by the malicious opportunists will become. It will grow brighter until it attracts the one who can hit its bulls-eye. The hitting of this bulls-eye will signify a step down from your extraordinary ventures. As your bulls-eye gets hit once, twice, and maybe seven times over, you’ll slowly start being replaced by another even more extraordinary being in the position you’ve attained.
Whether or not your extraordinary reign is worth protecting it is up to you. Whether or not it can be protected is another matter. Some positions in life are impossible to keep away from the public’s gaze. One thing to keep in mind though, is that the desire to show off your achievements should be suppressed as much as you can manage.
The path to sustained victory is to prove only to yourself that you are an extraordinary being, while being ordinary in the eyes of others. A successful attempt at that will ensure that the bulls-eye of your success does not grow large, and does not attract the starving.
Being Your Own Sole Fan
Try out an exercise to prove to only yourself that you are extraordinary without letting anyone else know about it. This will be painful to your pride, but less painful to any type of throne you find yourself looking down from. The ability to suppress your desire of letting your successes be known to all will do well to keep postponing, and protecting you from, any forced attempt to get you off the throne you’ve worked hard to sit on.
Do not give others the ammo of envy to load into their firearms of ambition. When you reach success, try merging into groups of the average and underachieving. Gather information and control your respective field from within as best you could. In doing so, your focus will be unhindered and your date of defeat will keep being postponed.
The illusion of power being held by those who stand out is a self-fulfilling prophecy which leads to the downfalls of those who wield it. Becoming an easy target is the last thing those with any power worthy of possessing, are looking to be. The power that is worth having is worth protecting. Becoming an easy target is a poor strategy, and perhaps an oversight difficult to resist in regard to the goal of maintaining the position that you’re in.
Why do humans often fall into the trappings that fame and notoriety bring about? A direct answer to this question can only be one which doesn’t scratch the itch of curiosity. A detailed answer to that same question will require the input of experts from the many fields which study humans.
Whatever answer you find to the question of why this happens is, it is safe to say that the desire to spread our feathers and show your bright colors very much exists. Though you may go on to learn why this desire exists in most, perhaps a more difficult question to answer will be, “How does this desire to publicize our success help us in the modern world we live?”