In the\u00a0career<\/a>\u00a0world, resum\u00e9s are the yardstick with which we measure our progress. This metric is one of the few ways we can quantitatively size up our successes, and there\u2019s something about having that standardized measurement of accomplishment that intimidates even the most exceptional overachiever.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like a mirror that seems to add 20 pounds to your figure. Seeing every accomplishment, every job, all of the internships and volunteer work that you\u2019ve ever had summed up into 12-point Times New Roman text that doesn\u2019t even take up an entire page is discouraging, to say the least. Pondering your newfound inadequacy, you ask yourself,\u00a0is this all I am? Am I really this average?<\/em><\/p>\n Yes. You really are that average. And that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n The Role of Social Media Plays in Feeling Subpar<\/strong><\/p>\n It seems we have created a distorted view of being average, and consequently, we try to avoid it at all costs. A\u00a0study\u00a0done on averageness and how we perceive it<\/a>\u00a0shows just how skewed our perspective is on the notion. Participants overall tended to label\u00a0their own abilities as above average\u2014try drawing\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0bell curve out\u2014but the study also found evidence that\u00a0people consider\u00a0\u201caverage\u201d as being synonymous with having below-average abilities rather than interpreting the term as its\u00a0literal definition.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s a sign of the times, and it\u2019s also\u00a0social comparison\u00a0<\/a>at work. With every scroll through social media, every new LinkedIn connection, we are reminded not of our own accomplishments, but the accomplishments of others (read: things you didn\u2019t accomplish but somebody else did). Meanwhile, other social media platforms like\u00a0Instagram or Facebook remind us of the cars we don’t drive and the places we haven’t been.\u00a0The age of technology has opened our eyes to the lives we don\u2019t have, and all of the sudden, each of ours seems lackluster in comparison. It\u2019s like how every novel on the shelf at the bookstore is somehow\u00a0a\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0bestseller.\u00a0How is that even possible?<\/em>\u00a0you ask yourself. But then you look down at the book you picked and see that it is the only one in the store without that shining medallion on the cover. Oh, and it\u2019s also a collection of amateur poetry. A lot of times, we make ourselves feel like our life is that single, unlauded book on the shelf.<\/p>\n As the usage of platforms like LinkedIn\u00a0continues to increase<\/a>, we may increasingly feel subpar in relation to our peers.\u00a0Imposter syndrome<\/a>\u00a0is a feeling that many people face within competitive environments, but even our social media has become a place of comparison that we now carry everywhere.<\/p>\n Young adults in the United States who are currently entering the job market find ourselves searching for a way to cope with achievement culture being at an\u00a0all-time high.<\/a>\u00a0Told from infancy that we are unique, exceptional, and capable of doing whatever we set our minds to, we have reached territory where these affirmations no longer necessarily apply. The departure from\u00a0adolescence<\/a>\u00a0has been difficult for every previous generation\u00a0and will always continue to be so, but equipped with a new, digital metric for success, Generation Z must learn to adapt to its modern world and newfound adulthood.<\/p>\n Our Very Own Treadmill<\/strong><\/p>\n The coping mechanisms of overachievers often involve, in this situation, taking on far too many responsibilities, roles, and emotional investments to carry, in hopes of overcoming the feeling of inadequacy.\u00a0And for a little while, it works. The\u00a0fear<\/a>\u00a0of the average leaves us alone. But then, we decide to add one more thing to the pile and everything goes south. It\u2019s as if we each are sprinting on our very own treadmills, and we bump up the speed every so often because it seems possible to go a\u00a0little<\/em> bit faster. And the whole time we are running on this\u00a0treadmill, this monster called averageness is chasing you, until you\u2019re sprinting so hard you can\u2019t keep up and fly off of the back of the treadmill. Still nursing your wounds, you climb back on the treadmill, turn the speed down a notch, and go back to sprinting away from this monster that forever nips at your heels.<\/p>\n We romanticize this mad, stupid sprint. Like martyrs, we sacrifice ourselves to this futile cause of making ourselves superhuman. Everyone\u00a0dreams<\/a>\u00a0of being that person who does it all\u2014balancing a career, a family, and a\u00a0social life<\/a>\u00a0like it\u2019s fine china, all while using the newest iPhone without a case on it and casually wafting an oh-so-abundant resum\u00e9 in your direction. And so, we run.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to hit the brakes on our sprint and slow down. Far too often, we try to outpace our averageness, but switching our version of success from quantitative to qualitative is what will help us realize that being average is, in the end, a great life to live.<\/p>\n Often, when\u00a0you look for something you\u2019ve lost, you never find it; it\u2019s when you stop looking that it reappears. If all we seek is high achievements or being the best, we will only find disappointment. Not only that, but we can no longer give our entire abilities to tasks at hand if there are too many to balance. In the end, we are not necessarily any less average than we were before balancing all of these responsibilities; we may simply be average at more things.<\/p>\n Slowing down and no longer buying into the quantitative mindset of success will allow us to pour our energy and time into what we prioritize, and we will be all the better because of it. Resum\u00e9s and social media can capture breadth, but they often fail to capture depth. Yet\u00a0depth is really where averageness is surpassed.<\/p>\n Surrendering to an average existence could be, paradoxically, how we find our better and happier selves.\u00a0Studies suggest<\/a>\u00a0it’s not simply the case that success leads to\u00a0happiness<\/a>; happiness itself may lead to greater success. So maybe, it\u2019s time we reprioritize what\u2019s worth sprinting for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Changing our definition of average and how this benefits us in the long run In the\u00a0 career<\/a> \u00a0world, resum\u00e9s are the yardstick with which we measure our progress. This metric is one of the few ways we can quantitatively size up …<\/p>\nContinue reading<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-soul"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n