if you don’t consider yourself average, does it matter if above or below? all the same. not average. maybe the question should be – “are you not average?” perhaps in answering, we would become average. (need coffee apparently)
This is a tried and proved universal truth…Especially challenging re performance assessments – nobody believes they belong at the low end of the bell curve.
Mirrors and egos give us such distorted views, esp. when their the inner and outer light is not shinning bright. We all need some revelation of disclosure to be humbled.
Well, great question. What is average? What is above average? And what are we measuring? But assuming that the survey sampled a random average group of individuals, it would be impossible for 83% of them to be above average.
We’re all three, depending on what’s being measured and what is considered average. That standard shouldn’t be left to those measured. I rate myself as below average in knowledge of current affairs, an average cook, and above average in common sense.
More observations from the razor thin line between life and death. The experience of shepherding my father through the dying process until his last breath is not something that can be interpreted and integrated all at once, but the insights gained have profoundly changed me. I’m so done with comparisons and rankings. None of us are extraordinary. I felt that with certainty as I watched the soft animal body of my father struggle to live and then stop. All that my father accomplished vanished into the nothingness of the past on every labored exhale. In the end, our legacy is not to be measured by averages but by how our presence makes others feel and how freely we love. We must not become Prufrock-like. We must dare to eat the peach.
There is no such thing as average…it’s just one more thing someone made up. Who wrote the definition? Who got to decide? How are things measured? What kind of people are labeled by the word? What does that label do to the people who BELIEVE it? All things to put people into groups and keep them there. Nope. There is no such thing as average because you can’t possibly know what an entire person is like and using average to look at one thing is like reading a page out of a book and labeling it, using your own world view. Blah on labels. If you tell someone their brilliant they will be…unless they were labeled average, or below, as children and believed it, that can make it a lot harder to believe in themselves.
Live & Learn 
Ha! A lot of healthy egos out there. 😜
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Ha! is right!
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Such surveys are majorly skewed due to self perception.
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TRUTH!
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Subscribers to the New York Times start out as self sorted. Sounds accurate to me. 😉
Off to subscribe.
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Laughing. So true!
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Remarkably unremarkable…
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Smiling.
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if you don’t consider yourself average, does it matter if above or below? all the same. not average. maybe the question should be – “are you not average?” perhaps in answering, we would become average. (need coffee apparently)
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Laughing. Just Math Shinto, just Math.
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❤
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Funny!
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I see there are more narcissists out there than I thought.
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yes we are! 🙂
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This is a tried and proved universal truth…Especially challenging re performance assessments – nobody believes they belong at the low end of the bell curve.
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Yes. An nobody believes they are average!
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Mirrors and egos give us such distorted views, esp. when their the inner and outer light is not shinning bright. We all need some revelation of disclosure to be humbled.
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Yes. Well stated Christie.
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should have omitted “their”
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hmmmm…
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Exactly…
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Average is fine. No stress in reaching for the brass ring. And no regrets in failing to secure it.
Oh, the joy of the common man!
-Alan
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Average is fine. To accept average, now that is the task.
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Is this a trick question and what is the catch?
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Well, great question. What is average? What is above average? And what are we measuring? But assuming that the survey sampled a random average group of individuals, it would be impossible for 83% of them to be above average.
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I think the best calculation is finding the median. The word average has a negative connotation.
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Yes to both Perpetua.
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We’re all three, depending on what’s being measured and what is considered average. That standard shouldn’t be left to those measured. I rate myself as below average in knowledge of current affairs, an average cook, and above average in common sense.
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Brilliant! I agree…
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More observations from the razor thin line between life and death. The experience of shepherding my father through the dying process until his last breath is not something that can be interpreted and integrated all at once, but the insights gained have profoundly changed me. I’m so done with comparisons and rankings. None of us are extraordinary. I felt that with certainty as I watched the soft animal body of my father struggle to live and then stop. All that my father accomplished vanished into the nothingness of the past on every labored exhale. In the end, our legacy is not to be measured by averages but by how our presence makes others feel and how freely we love. We must not become Prufrock-like. We must dare to eat the peach.
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Elizabeth, your words strung together like pearls, breathtaking. Thank you for sharing. I’m moved.
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Reminds me of something a boss told me years ago…
“My scale runs from minus 10 to plus 10
I’m just trying to be a zero”
I always loved that.
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Laughing. That’s classic.
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There is no such thing as average…it’s just one more thing someone made up. Who wrote the definition? Who got to decide? How are things measured? What kind of people are labeled by the word? What does that label do to the people who BELIEVE it? All things to put people into groups and keep them there. Nope. There is no such thing as average because you can’t possibly know what an entire person is like and using average to look at one thing is like reading a page out of a book and labeling it, using your own world view. Blah on labels. If you tell someone their brilliant they will be…unless they were labeled average, or below, as children and believed it, that can make it a lot harder to believe in themselves.
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Brilliant. Thanks for sharing. I read through it 3 times and whispered to myself: Yes. Yes. Yes.
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I’m so glad you liked it. Thank you. I believe it completely.
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