The Ugly Truth About Being Great
You're Probably Average — Good. Here’s Why
What Makes Someone Extraordinary?
Not talent.
Not genes.
Not a 10-step morning routine involving cold plunges and mushroom coffee.
Extraordinary people don’t start with greatness.
They start with the opposite: mediocrity, self-doubt, being average. But they’re possessed by the belief that they can be better — and they do the work to prove it.
That’s it.
No secret sauce. No fancy planner. Just awareness, effort, and the patience to put in the reps — even when it’s boring. In fact, especially when it’s boring.
We’re All Pretty Average — And That’s the First Step to Being Great
Most of us? We’re average.
Yeah, I said it.
Even if you’re exceptional at one thing, chances are there’s something you’re absolutely terrible at. Maybe it’s butterfingers catching a ball (like me), or maybe you are disaster-prone in the kitchen. Communication, public speaking, or, heck, remembering where you left your keys.
That’s not an insult, just the math of being human. It’s the nature of life. Balance.
If you want to become great at something — whether it’s learning a skill, getting a degree, or building a shredded physique—you’ve got to pour a ridiculous amount of time, effort, and consistency into it. It’s those reps. Over and over. Hammering away at your craft. Talent helps, sure. But grit? Grit beats everything.
And here’s the truth no one really says out loud:
Most people will never be truly exceptional at more than one thing.
If anything at all.
But True Greatness Comes at a Cost
Ever noticed how brilliant business minds often suck at relationships?
Or how extraordinary athletes can be emotionally as deep as a soggy piece of toast?
Celebrities? Often just as clueless as the creeps obsessing over them in the comment section.
That’s the yin and yang, my friends.
It’s the tradeoff. You get freakishly good at one thing, and the rest of your life takes a few punches.
Scarcity Shifts — It Doesn’t Disappear
Scarcity never vanishes—it just shapeshifts, changes form.
What do I mean by that?
Back in the day, people died from starvation. Now? More people die from obesity.
We used to walk miles to the library for information. Now we drown in it — Google, YouTube, TikTok, 800+ TV channels, and if none of that sticks? There’s always Netflix and Disney+ to binge us into oblivion.
We’re swimming in information but starving for clarity.
Our attention spans have been turned into bite-sized, sugar-coated crumbs.
So what ends up getting through the noise?
The extremes:
The best of the best
The worst of the worst
Some guy who ate 76 hot dogs in under 10 minutes to break the Guinness World Record
The model with abs carved from marble
The entrepreneur who made $8 million by selling digital paperclips
Why? Because attention equals dollars. The media serves us the extraordinary on a silver platter every single day.
So where does that leave us average Janes and Joes?
It Leaves Us With Entitlement
When all you see is the extraordinary, you start feeling… less than.
We think we deserve more. We believe we’re behind. We feel cheated.
It’s not our fault — our brains were never designed to process highlight reels 24/7.
But here we are. Insecure. Staring at someone else’s 1% and wondering why our lives don’t look like that.
We’re told, “Don’t compare yourself to others.”
Cute. But unrealistic.
I say, compare yourself — but do it wisely.
Don’t compare yourself to LeBron James — unless you’re planning to dunk over a car.
But someone is one step ahead of you? That’s fair game. That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow.
The trick is being your own filter. Social media won’t filter the madness for you — you have to separate the noise from what matters. Recognize that you’re part of the average majority… and that’s okay.
Because here’s the kicker:
If everyone was extraordinary, no one would be.
We could lie to ourselves and pretend we’re cupcakes living on rainbows. But let’s be honest… deep down, we kind of know we’re average.
So maybe we’re not the next Einstein. Or the next Ronaldo. Or that weird guy on TikTok who reviews water bottles and makes a killing.
But if we can own where we are and be brutally honest about what we lack… we’ve already taken the first step.
Being average doesn’t mean you’re doomed. It means you’re starting at the same place as everyone else — with room to grow.
Own it. Start there. Then put in the reps that most won’t.
That’s how the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Now I’m curious:
Do you ever feel crushed by comparison?
Have you learned to filter the noise?
Or are you still trying to figure it all out like the rest of us?
👇 Drop a comment below —I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading!
In other news…
🧠 New challenges released in The Mind Gym!
Put your brain to the test and try them out now — along with all the previous challenges.
Subscribe, earn points, level up, and climb the leaderboard!
