There was a time when doing honest work, raising a family well and leaving one’s children slightly better off was considered a successful life. Today, being exceptional has shifted from an aspiration to an obligation. Children must excel at everything, professionals must build personal brands, entrepreneurs must create unicorns, and even hobbies are expected to become side hustles. Dr Srinath Sridharan writes for the Free Press Journal about this societal development and what can be done about it.
He highlights that social media has intensified this pressure by replacing comparisons with neighbours and colleagues with comparisons against the curated lives of billionaires, celebrities and influencers. “Average is synonymous with failure.” Hence, despite enjoying greater prosperity and opportunity, we remain perpetually anxious that we are falling behind.
The irony is that families, businesses and societies are sustained less by spectacular acts than by ordinary people reliably fulfilling unglamorous responsibilities. We have confused visibility with value and contentment with complacency.
“Perhaps the real luxury in the twenty-first century is not excess, but enough.”
The author argues that we need not abandon ambition. We merely need to recover respect for competence, consistency and responsibilities fulfilled without applause. A meaningful life need not be an extraordinary one. As he puts it beautifully, “Significance and visibility are not alike.” Worth reading the whole piece in its entirety.
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