Do you ever get sick of being mediocre?
You don’t get up in the morning and think “I want to be mediocre today and just bow to the world” but for some reason, the day and a lot of the work you do ends up feeling mediocre. Gotta change that!
Bland buildings in Ottawa, Canada that are so "not" wow.
Here are some places I personally find mediocrity showing up:
- When people—such as the occasional client—wimp out on adding contrast and dramatic interest to publications. Result: boring.
- When members of the orchestra start leaving the stage before the applause has stopped. Result: poor audience experience.
- When a day goes by with countless, trivial pursuits instead of focusing on one or two important pursuits. Result: work life feels empty and bland.
- When I see “leaders” who don’t lead but are just putting in time. Result: mediocre organizations and companies.
The list goes on and on.
Why do we choose the mediocrity route instead of making everything we do “WOW”?
I think when we try to be WOW, we are afraid we will rock the boat. We have to start choosing more of what excites us or at least finding the ways to make what we already do a lot more “WOW.”
When you try for “WOW” in your work, you may fail. People will probably laugh at you or criticize you. Good, let them. So what.
If you aren’t doing “WOW” in your art or within your arts organization, how will you ever expect to have something worth marketing that anyone will care about?
What are you doing that makes you feel “WOW” and gets rid of mediocrity? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Even on a grey day, these Guadi chimneys in Barcelona are nothing but "WOW." (photo: John McLachlan)
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Shooting for WOW is the only way to go! I’ve written a fair bit about WOW over the years. In fact my watercolor workshops are called “Watercolor Like WOW” [grin] I reckon passion is the essential element in any worthwhile pursuit. There is a lot of complacency [and consequent mediocrity] in the world today. People are overwhelmed. Where do we start in striving to be remarkable? And then there’s the fear of failure. Everyone has that fear. But you’re so right in saying… so what? “So what” frees you up to fearlessly get on with it. Good topic John… thanks for the reminder!
Hurray for shooting for WOW and what a hoot that you have a workshop with it in the title.
Fighting the fear for many is the toughest part. It’s always so much less risk than we ever realize. Some of the things I’ve taken the most “so what” attitude with have given the best results. I don’t mean “so what” in an off-handed snide way, but rather an inner feeling of just going and doing it.
I have a theory about ‘wow’. In our culture there is a reluctance to move past the pack for fear of being out there alone. We have an anti-elitist culture that breeds sameness and dullness. We don’t want to offend or ostracize; we don’t want to leave anyone out. In the old fashioned sense of the word, elitist should be top dog, best in show, virtuoso. But in our culture, elite status is for elitists… which is seen as negative. I would love to see a shift where reaching for the sky is just the thing you do – especially in creative pursuits.
I think you hit on the issue of elitism. It’s so true, we tend to want make sure everyone’s happy and in so doing nobody is happy. Everything becomes flat and boring.
I think this is even more of a problem in non-profit organizations. I’ve been on boards and I’ve been an executive director of two as well as working with them as a member or client and the structure just seems to encourage “safety” and making sure everyone is no offended. Not all are like this and those that aren’t a lot more vibrant.
[...] earlier post about WOWing or bowing talks a little about [...]