(2023-06-13) Millerd The Way Of Mediocre Man

Paul Millerd: The Way of Mediocre Man. Mediocre man flows through life. It is his birthright. He is not great man aiming at great results but merely trying to do enough of the right things over a long period of time such that it might lead somewhere interesting.

Mediocre man is one who learns to trust the journey because he is fully aware that one cannot quite know what will result from any specific effort.

*But he has stumbled upon a secret: mediocre effort beats extreme effort for most people, most of the time.

A little bit of effort into something you like doing can have shockingly good results over a long period of time. It took me 14 months to write my book, and the entire process felt leisurely, light, and enjoyable. When I finished, I was shocked by the quality of my creation. It delighted me. I decided I wanted to share it with the world immediately. I skipped any sort of book launch and started selling it. I sold a couple of hundred books in the first month and declared it a success. To someone aiming at great results, this would have been a disaster.

The topic of my book is something I continue to be passionate and I didn’t expect my curiosity to die with the release of my book. I was playing a game I wanted to keep playing, and more importantly, knew I could keep playing. (infinite game)

The gospel of effort is so pervasive that even if something might feel easy, people tell a story about how hard it is. This widespread tendency undermines any hope of self-awareness about one’s relationship with work.

I have met many people that are deeply connected to what they are doing. They are playing an infinite game not dependent on hustle but on ensuring that they protect that special relationship with their work

But the fabric of reality in which they exist short-circuits their own understanding.

This is further complicated by the fact that most people alive today don’t have the privilege of experiencing this deeper connected state with their work. Most people are spending their time pretending to care about work that they acknowledge is meaningless.

Mediocre man rejects this.

it has not been my experience that writing involves anything close to the flavor of effort that I expended debating the titles of PowerPoint slides on my previous path

I’m not saying writing is easy, either! Mediocrity and challenge can coexist. What I am saying is that the challenge of working your way through a piece of writing does not require extreme effort. More important is having an ongoing relationship with writing that you want to nourish and sustain.

Great Men and Women Do Exist, But You Are Not One

But we are tricked by their proximity. We see them 18 inches away on our screens and assume we are like them. Or that we should be like them.

here’s the thing about these people: they have never had to force themselves to be this way.

Steady employment is no longer guaranteed. It requires a base level of anxiety about employability, an effort to maintain prosocial connections, awareness of the latest business trends, and an ability to “power through” rough stretches at work.

I came across a phrase from coach Joe Hudson that perfectly encapsulates the secret of mediocrity that I haven’t been able to get out of my head:
“Don’t waste effort on trying.”

Most of us likely have a fixed amount of effort that we can use up in a day or week. If we waste most of that effort on things we don’t want to do, we might end up wasting years of our lives

The best way to use our effort is to “spend it” on daily, weekly, or monthly practices (habits), which we can sustain longer than most others. This is the secret of mediocrity. It only appears mediocre from another person’s perspective. Over long enough time horizons, you can actually become one of the best in the world at your craft because of a simple truth: most people quit.

Extreme effort can only be maintained, not sustained. In most cases, it is fueled by drugs, alcohol, nice stuff, and fancy vacations. You relieve stress but never escape low-grade anxiety that becomes your daily companion

For years, I mistakenly paired my inability to grind with a lack of competence and ability.
But now I have tasted the sweet fruits of mediocrity and know that it can be a path to thriving.