Reinventing Mediocrity: Escaping The ‘Meh’
Graphic by Libbe Phan
“Invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
Don’t swim in the same slough,
Invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
And stay out if the clutches of mediocrity”
- Charles Bukowski – No Leaders, Please
Uft! That’s a pretty tall order at the moment! A lot of us, me included, feel like we’re “swimming in the same slough” of the same old same, old and of lockdowns and restrictions. That cursed middle point in between hot and cold, good and bad, rocks and hard places or between going to the pub with your mates and being housebound during an unprecedented global pandemic. In times like these, it can be hard to battle that feeling of the ‘in-between’, that all encompassing ‘meh’ that goes hand in hand with crappy winter weather and online-university. The summer freckles are long gone, and we’re decidedly swamped in never ending Uni assignments, work, and new lockdown restrictions.
How can we fix this? How do we, as Bukowski demands, reinvent ourselves in this current climate? How do we escape the clutches of mediocrity when it seems harder than ever?
Well, perhaps instead of necessarily reinventing yourself, reinvent and redefine what mediocrity, or supposed mediocrity, really means at the moment. I doubt Bukowski was writing during a global bout of pandemic or had to suffer online university. In these times of extremes, the ‘mediocre’ takes on a new meaning, one beyond the middle-ground; a new mediocre in the new normal. What I considered as merely mediocrity, also meant that I will still functioning pretty well, I had good enough health, physical or otherwise, and was still getting on with whatever I needed to be getting on with. When there’s grey clouds and corona out there, being able to keep on keeping on is actually very impressive.
For me personally, this reframing and reinventing of what I considered mediocrity to be was not a simple task. I have always held myself to perhaps too-high a standard and feeling unproductive, unsuccessful or uninspired in what I was doing was extremely frustrating. As a student, the most frequent source of ‘meh’ is definitely that constant bane, online university. Its hard to make progress, or feel like you are, when staring at Zoom, TEAMS or Skype calls for hours on end, when you have to sit in the library with a mask on or with the fact that you haven’t seen more than most of your peers’ head and shoulders for at least three months. But what was perhaps most distressing about feeling so-so was how it me feel as a whole, not just as a student. All aspects of my life, from writing, to keeping in contact with friends, to my diet, to even getting out and about seemed to be affected by this feeling that I was doing ‘ok’ but not particularly ‘great’; I truly felt in “the clutches of mediocrity”.
Perhaps the most helpful thing that made me re-evaluate how I was feeling was talking to other people around me. I was not alone in the slough, and a lot of my friends were also having a swim around in slow moving stream of ‘meh’. This may not sound too promising, but it meant I was not alone! This feeling was and is a common human reaction to a world that is anything but average. When you think of it like that, then ‘averageness’ is an okay place to be. As well as chatting to friends, I also talked to my university tutor. Those high standards I was running after were predominantly Uni-based and I thought that my average motivation for work was forming into decidedly average grades. Talking to someone at the Uni about this really helped me and I would recommend it! Its all about balance at the moment and actually taking it relatively slow can help with finding that sweet spot. One thing that struck me was that my tutor told me I was doing really well; my reaction was a human one. Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you’re doing well, despite it all! Functioning and managing to get things done is a victory, and if you’re still turning on your camera and study ‘insert-degree-here’ over the internet then its certainly not mediocre. Never before have students, or anyone for that matter, had so much screen time! Neither have any of us had to work under such conditions before. The fact is, when you place this feeling of mediocrity into this new normal, it ceases to be mediocre and becomes pretty damn impressive.
Another way to reinvent the mediocre would be to view it in context of our modern society. One thing corona has done has put everything to a stop. Our fast-paced society has hit a COVID brick wall. But how does that help us meh-feeling-fellows? When the world isn’t going round at 100 miles an hour, and neither are we for that matter, it can feel like we’re not succeeding or not keeping up. This being said, perhaps it could allow us a little breathing space. I’m trying to see this period of slowness as an opportunity to allow myself to slow down as well. To somewhat reject those extremely high-standards (that had become detrimental) and to go with the flow. I’m allowing myself to float there for a while, in that ‘same slough’ of extraordinary mediocrity.
The reword Bukowski, or rather, imagine what Bukowski would say in the current situation, instead of reinventing yourself, reinvent the notion of mediocrity. Its easier to “escape the clutches” of that ‘meh’ feeling when you realised that its not mediocre at all! The everyday is now the extraordinary, so remember to place those feelings into this new framework. If you still manage to keep on working even though it gets dark at 5pm, or, when you get all the way to the shops, realise you left your mask at home but still manage to pop back home, grab a mask and go pick up your chocolate and orange juice, then you’re doing better that you think! If you are feeling in the clutches of mediocrity, then let me be the person to tell you that you’re actually doing really well.