11 Ways to be Unremarkably Average
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Found on reddit:
"Also I feel this comic isn't accurately describing life. Its putting life away as something shallow and cheap. Life isn't just about where you work. Life is about who you love and your experiences. This comic doesn't tell the story about how he meets the love of his life in college and how they stay'd up all night to watch the stars together. It doesn't tell you that with that massive mortgage that he had to pay for for 30 years he bought the house of his dreams. The house he raised his family in. The house his 3 children were born in and that still have their growing marked in the door frame. It doesn't tell about his passion for wood work that his daytime job payed for. I hate comics like this because they put so much effort into trying to motive you to become better in life but all they do is cheapen it. Life is not about trying to be better then everyone else. Life is about finding a way to be happy and if living an "average" life like I just described makes you happy, well then that is what you should do.
As someone who lived an above average life before settling down and now living an average life. I am so glad my life is now just average and I can just be happy with who I am and who I am with."
My girlfriends father lives an "average life" but he is the happiest dude I know and is probably more happy than I will ever be. He has a pretty simple job working for one company as a contractor and makes just enough to support all of his hobbies (gaming is one of them).
I have a burning ambition like many people on here to be "successful" but sometimes it's a detriment.
He says life is about finding a way to be happy. I disagree.
Life is about creating. Happiness is just an outlook. This comic challenges people to be creative, and to step outside of the automatic society we live in that suppresses our natural ability to be creative beings.
You might just be playing devil's advocate, but in case you actually believe the drivel that Redditor was spouting, I encourage you to watch this TED talks:
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com
Life for you and many others may be about creating but I could care less about creating things. I like challenge and fulfillment of my interests which none happen to be creating any thing other than wealth for myself and family which only a means to do more of what I care about. I consider this notion of "creating" as a life purpose on par with manifest destiny. Pointless.
I do agree with the concept that you don't have to conform, but there is nothing wrong with conforming if that is what makes you happy/satisfies your needs and offsprings needs.
I do agree with the concept that you don't have to conform, but there is nothing wrong with conforming if that is what makes you happy/satisfies your needs and offsprings needs.
Come again?
Creating something does not mean that the something you create must be tangible.
Edit: To elaborate...
You may create a nest egg, a legacy to pass onto your children, a business, a video game, a meal in the microwave, a community movement, a viral meme, a forum reputation, a deep connection with the ones you love, a philosophy on life, children in your image, etc..
Those are all forms of creation.
...your argument of creation is not the same as the cartoon above. You can argue me down to the fact that I eat potatoes to create a shit for tomorrow. Creation to me is a means to an end, not a goal. I do things purely for happiness and my goal in life is to be happy. If I can do that by doing literally nothing all day I will
The comic essentially says "be different."
We are born into a sandbox. You can dumb it down and call this place Minecraft. While every action has a consequence, we are free men to do whatever we want. If you have a will, you will use this sandbox to create a product of yourself whether it be a profound thought, a Star Wars lightsaber out of paper towel rolls, or a loyal relationship with a friend.
The issue being addressed in this comic is that once we are born, we are pushed into line. Suddenly everything we seek to create, (again, for those of us who have wills), has a baseline that we're duped into conforming to. This comic is simply saying "Fuck the Baseline."
I can't argue what happiness means to you. But I will say that just because laying around the house for the sake of not doing a damn thing (or just taking a break from being creative, for that matter) does not mean that creating does not make you happy. In fact, I'm sure if you just laid around all year, you would eventually become depressed.
"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day."
- W. Beran Wolfe
Break up the monotony. Play a little Minecraft.
An American business man took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor’s orders. Unable to sleep after an urgent phone call from the office the first morning, he walked out to the pier to clear his head. A small boat with just one fisherman had docked, and inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.
“Only a little while,” the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
“But… What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, sir.”
The American laughed and stood tall. “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
He continued, ”Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But sir, how long would all this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years. 25 tops.”
“But what then, sir?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”
“Millions, sir? Then what?”
“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”
“How long did it take you to catch them?” the American asked.
“Only a little while,” the Mexican replied in surprisingly good English.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends,” the Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
“But… What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican looked up and smiled. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Julia, and stroll into the village each evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, sir.”
The American laughed and stood tall. “Sir, I’m a Harvard M.B.A. and can help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. In no time, you could buy several boats with the increased haul. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
He continued, ”Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But sir, how long would all this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years. 25 tops.”
“But what then, sir?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”
“Millions, sir? Then what?”
“Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village, where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”
The problem is that, most of the time, you don't realize you're actually happy. You need ups and downs in your life, you need to be able to make comparisons.
Can you imagine how boring it would be to be happy all day long? You'd get fucking bored! You'd want some drama, some action in your life to feel you're alive. I find happiness in the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is about the journey, not the destination.
The purpose of life is to be happy? So if I can manage to get through life as long as possible while minimizing bad feelings then I have succeeded? Fuck that. I've had plenty of bad feelings, they are just a part of life. As many of these comics suggest, you should do something significant. You won the cosmic lottery and now you exist on Earth (not to mention the sub-lottery of being born into the 1st world), and you'd rather squander your time by trying to make it as tolerable as possible than actually do something great and be a bad ass and bang chicks and go fun places and tell hilarious stories and have a library named after you?? Shiiiiiiiiit.
The artist didn't say there was anything particularily wrong with it either other than it's unremarkably average.
If you have no problem with average, move along. Nothing to see here.
I Agree with this. I also think that this can achieved within the so-called average life.
I don't believe there is a "purpose" to life. I think we exist and our emotions are morphed instincts developed from our higher form of thinking. Somewhere along the lines this concept of unique vs average was developed when in reality none of it means anything.
I meet people that live simple routine based lives That are some of the happiest people I know. Then I meet others always trying to be different and "change the world" that are never content and appear to suffer during stagnation.
I'm not disagreeing with the cartoon, but I find it to be somewhat of a contradiction.
Disclaimer: I am the type of person that suffers from stagnation. However, I have been altering the way I live to focus on enjoying what I have than constantly looking forward.
Pain, sorrow, and death are all inevitable. Isn't spending your time avoiding them just postponing the inevitable? Whether or not life has a purpose, if you don't create one yourself then what's the point of living?
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urGVKx3H_Rk]life is pain The Princess Bride - YouTube[/ame]
The purpose is each our own. To dictate whether we should or should not live an average life is silly. To some people, thier purpose in life is to wake up and live thier routine. I find that just as admirable as the person that dedicates thier life to a cause they believe in. As long as they are living up to thier purpose, the nature of the purpose is irrelevant.