Mission Statement

The purpose of this blog is to tell you that it's okay to not hate your job.

It's okay to feel like you're treading water.

It's okay to 'stay in your lane.'

Sure, motivational posters with stock photos and inexplicably wealthy life coach types will tell you to embrace your inner whatever and follow your bliss and turn your hobby into your career and all that other happy-crappy stuff about how passion will win the day... 

I'll also tell you to go to Vegas and put it all on black and honestly, my advice has a better chance of paying off. Here's the shocking truth.... the vast majority of us are destined to be average. That's not an insult, that's literally how average works.


Here's what I'm getting at. There are two quotes I use as guiding principles in life.

One is from a great movie called LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. An English soldier askes T.E. Lawrence (played of course by Peter O'Toole) why he's such a clown - to which he replies...

"We can't all be lion tamers."

That's goddamn beautiful right there. We can't all be lion tamers. Now of course Lawrence went on to do great things on the Arabian peninsula in World War one before crashing a silly looking motorcycle  but his point stands. Statistically most of us are just going to be average.

AND THAT'S OKAY!

The other expression I really like comes from Will Rogers and is oft misquoted so I apologize in advance for potentially paraphrasing, but it's words to the effect of....

"We can't all be heroes, someone has to sit on the curb and clap as the parade goes by."

Golly, when you put it like that mediocrity almost seems... noble.  

Here's the thing, we here in America and certain parts of England have decided that it's not enough to be average. We're all supposed to be great. We're all supposed to have some deep seeded (seated?) talent and ability that will make us rise above the rest and make our ex-boy/girlfriends really feel bad for not appreciating our awesomness when they could have. We're all one song, one vine, one screenplay, one interpretive dance away from all of our high school graduating class lying to people about what good friends they were with us 'back in the day.'

Well I'm here to tell you folks, the math don't add up. Most of us aren't special. That's why special people... are. 

This isn't bad news. If your'e reading this blog then chances are you have access to electricty and running water and probably snack foods. These are all good and fine things and your life really isn't that bad. It certainly isn't the type of life that requires more than a standard amount of examination and/or navel gazing. 

If you have a job - any job really - you're ahead of the game. Sure, maybe you could rise up in your field through hard work. Or you could make a change by acquiring some new skills and education. But should your walk away from it all and max out your credit cards to make that indie film you're just dying to direct? Heck, Kevin Smith did it and he seems wealthy.

But for every Kevin Smith there's 10,000 dudes with an unfinished film and a 431 credit rating. 

So next time you're thinking about how 'soul crushing' your job is, or how 'unfulfilling' the work is at the end of the day, remember you could be unemployed and starving to death because of the eight billion people on the planet - a shocking number of them are. 

Suddenly pushing paper around in a building with central air-conditioning doesn't seem so bad, amirite?