"Remember that passion & speed are the ultimate power combo!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, “25 Things I’ve Learned That Will Carry Me Into 2025.” He is putting this together based on his 30-year career as a futurist, trends, and innovation expert, advising leaders of some of the world’s most prestigious organizations on how to align to a faster future. He intends for the series to provide valuable guidance to others eager to learn how to move through a year that promises to be volatile, unpredictable, and full of uncertainty. Each day, the post goes out on multiple mailing lists, social media networks, and to the Website https://2025inspiration.jimcarroll.com
Move fast and make things!
That's been my motto for quite some time - and I've literally lived this reality in the last 12 days.
Despite it being a wonderfully busy Christmas season with family, friends, skiing and other activities, I've pulled an entire new book together. (I must say, my wonderful wife and business partner isn't too thrilled with my sudden focus on a new project!)
Well, it's not fully together, but I have little doubt that it will be out before the end of January. (Stated reason: My wife, who is much smarter and more experienced in the organizational end of things, is now working hard to manage my impatience and doing the necessary things to make sure it is properly edited, formatted, and ready for print. She know reality way better than me!)
The backstory? Remember post #15 in this series? The one titled "Stop Doing the Things That Make You Marginal." That post had a long list of things that people do that hold them back - a list of things that cause failure. I thought a lot about that post and that list after writing it, and realized - there's a book hiding in that list! The upshot is that in the last 10 days - amid this holiday season - I've pulled together just such a book! Embracing Mediocrity - How to Do Nothing Notable and Accomplish As Little as Possible, takes a fun, satirical look at the ideas in that original post. You can take a sneak peek at the book on a new Web site I just established - it's at https://mediocrity.jimcarroll.com
The back cover summarizes the essence of the book!
"Finally, a book that celebrates the art of doing just enough to get by!
In a world obsessed with excellence, "Embracing Mediocrity" offers a refreshingly tepid approach to life's greatest question: Why try at all?
This groundbreaking guide to underachievement provides readers with a meticulously crafted road-map to embracing their inner average!
For those tired of inspirational quotes and motivational insight, this comprehensive manual delivers the perfect antidote to success! Within these pages, you'll discover the liberating joy of lowered expectations and the subtle art of strategic under-performance. It's full of self-sabotaging wisdom that will allow you to appear busy while accomplishing absolutely nothing of significance.
Whether you're a seasoned underachiever or just beginning your journey toward inconsequentiality, "Embracing Mediocrity" provides the ultimate blueprint for reaching your lowest potential.
After all, why shoot for the stars when the ground is within reach?
Essentially, I've taken all the years of insight that I've accumulated on inspiration, creativity, trends, disruption and the future - and have turned it upside down. It's essentially a tome of anti-motivational insight, a book that is designed to get you to do the wrong thing. Obviously it's satirical, but the fact is, hidden within the satire is the fact I've seen much of this satire occur in the real world. In other words - it might be a work of satirical non-fiction?
The interesting thing is that the entirety of the book and the project that has evolved so far is a wonderful study in contradictions. To start, I'm an innovation and creativity guy, always encouraging people to try to do their best - and yet I'm writing a book about achieving mediocrity. The sweet irony of this experience wasn't lost on me: the very act of rapidly creating a guide about mediocrity demonstrated exactly what not to do if you actually want to be mediocre!
Think about that - it's like accidentally teaching about the idea excellence through its opposite - instructing people how to fail. To me, that's a beautiful paradox that perfectly illustrates the weird moment I'm living through as we pull this book together.
But it works! The reason for that is by crafting together the 125 points that comprise the path to being mediocre, I'm actually documenting some of the leadership and innovation failures that I've seen through the years. In that way, it has come together as a team building book. I can see an executive giving a copy to his or her team, and saying : "These are the behaviours we must stop." "These are the actions we need to kill." "This is the culture we need to destroy." "These are the very things we are doing which are holding us back!"
That's the backstory of the book. But the very process of pulling it together in such short order has clarified for me the essence of this plan for 2024: "Remember that passion & speed are the ultimate power combo!" When I came up for the idea of the book and realized that I had material by which I could quickly pull it together, I was suddenly driven.
Why is that? Think about it. While the book playfully suggests overthinking everything and paralysis by analysis, the actual writing process of pulling it together has demanded quick, decisive action - the exact opposite of the guidance found in the book. That mirrors the reality of today's accelerating business landscape - the ability to move swiftly while being driven by a passion for the purpose is a recipe for success.
What fascinates me most is how this experience reinforces key principles of future-readiness. The speed of execution, the willingness to take calculated risks, and the embrace of apparent contradictions - these are exactly the skills organizations need to thrive in an era of exponential change. Creative innovation often emerges from embracing constraints rather than fighting them - adapting to contradictions rather than smoothing them - accepting differences despite the challenge they create.
In my case, this ridiculous tight timeline didn't limit my creativity; it enhanced it! Bringing my sudden passion for this purpose just accelerated my creativity to an astonishing degree. And I think there is a lesson in there - this same principle can apply across industries - from agile software development to rapid product prototyping and other methods of moving fast.
Looking ahead, I see this as a microcosm of how successful organizations will need to operate. The ability to move quickly, pivot gracefully, and find opportunity in apparent contradictions will become increasingly valuable in our rapidly evolving business landscape. Embrace the volatility, adapt to the uncertainty, align to the ambiguity. And do it fast!
The future belongs to those who can balance speed with substance, action with insight, and - yes - even find success in studying its opposite. As we navigate the accelerating pace of change, perhaps sometimes the best way to understand excellence is to examine its counterpart.
Futurist Jim Carroll’s wife was still in the process of editing book #40 — Being Unique — when he advised her that he was working on title #41 — Acheiving Mediocrity. She displayed great patience with this sudden change in plans, as she does.