14/08/2025
This is for my ambition-wired, high-achieving perfectionists out here 👀
(But also anyone in recovery from the damages that came with trying to excel by the rules and conditions dictated by diet & wellness culture)
-
We are conditioned by society to believe that more is better. That better is always worth the effort. And that we should always thrive to be better, faster, more “perfect.”
Why, though?
Who for?
Who benefits from our belief that every unit of time should be used productively, in pursuit of excellence and efficiency?
And who gets to decide what is being measured (the goals) and how (the performance scorecard)?
-
This is an invitation (from Jenny & myself) to embrace mediocrity (instead of perfection) as taught, defined and measured by systems (and often internalised by us!) when it comes to parts of your life that simply matter less to you, or simply because you have arrived at the inevitable conclusion that you can’t “have it all at once” and must therefore learn to prioritise.
Why?
Because learning to prioritise is the flip side of this coin. The ability to choose to spend (yes, “spend” is the right word, this has a cost!) energy, time, attention, care on the areas of the your life that you deem to matter more (in absolute terms or in this moment/season of life).
-
Interestingly enough, the more mediocrity (as defined by others/systems, as I was taught) I have welcomed into my life, the less mediocre my life has felt.
So if you are burning yourself out on performing in every part of your life, maybe it is time to reassess where you are, what you value, who you understand yourself to be/to want to be, and to align your actions with that (aka priories).
Note that this is also very much applicable to recovery in a diet & wellness culture society!! I choose mediocrity - by this culture/society’s standards - when it comes to the performance of eating, moving and looking (image). And that comes with immense freedom to care about the other parts of my life that matter to me.
✌️💋