# Good Enough: The Myth of Success and How to Celebrate the Joy in Average

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/good-enough-the-myth-of-success-and-how-to-celebrate-the-joy-in-average/
- Published: 2021-08-30T08:45:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Exploring the way in which our quest to succeed and our pursuit of perfection 
blinds us to what life is all about, _Good Enough_ combines sobering memoir and 
the science, stats and people propping up the myth of success.**

Have you ever felt average? That you’re not special or extraordinary, just . . .
normal? And that chances are society’s obsession with always being the best and 
smashing life is setting us up for failure?

Years of striving and pushing to be better than everyone else are breaking us. Fear
of disappointment and our pursuit of someone else’s definition of success tell us
we’re not enough. They tell us to work late, then work hard in the gym, overcommit,
then post about #selfcare on our painstakingly curated social media feeds. They 
tell us to push ourselves until we break, all to prove our worth, to show we deserve
our place.

But are we tolerating the lows to reach the fleeting highs, and are we missing all
the good stuff along the way? Why are we programmed to live like this, and is it
society that needs to change, not us?

One thing’s for sure – it’s better to be average and happy than exceptional and 
miserable. We’re all good enough, just as we are.

**Eleanor Ross** is an award-winning journalist who has reported from Iqaluit in
Arctic Canada to Osh in Kyrgyzstan. She has written for all major UK broadsheets,
loves hiking, and has written a book about outdoor adventures in London. When she’s
not writing, she’s walking with her dog, Mabel.