Friday, September 16, 2011

Down With Average!

OneRepublic, not your average band...
Has anyone ever wanted to just be average?  

Average weight, average height, average salary, average looks...  If you can find this person I bet they would be, well, average.

When you are diagnosed with cancer, you are provided with a plethora of statistics that ultimately lead to the million dollar question:  

"What do the averages say about me being alive in 5 years?"

After grappling with this new, very real statistic and talking with a few close advisers I realized there was only one statistic that mattered in my fight against Hodgkin's Lymphoma:  


Things were going to work out (100%), or they were not (0%).  It was that simple and all I could do was fight hard and have faith in myself.

I had the incredible fortune of sitting down with the band OneRepublic this past week and we were talking about the importance of staying true to yourself, or in OneRepublic's case, their sound.

Too often we are tempted to imitate others past formulas for success in pursuit of beating the average.  In the case of a band this could mean modeling your music after what's worked for others in the past or what has the highest sales volume at the moment.

The problem with this approach is that when (and IF!) you experience imitative success it will likely be temporary as you had to become something else, something against the grain of who you are to achieve it.  In order to maximize fulfillment in your life - the ultimate success - you must stay true to yourself and the values that define you.

Your sound.  

In a society laden with measurable comparisons, my sense is that everyone has an average in their life they think about on a frequent basis and how they can stay ahead of or keep up with it. If you are not careful you may make decisions against your better judgment which can be detrimental to your life’s ultimate fulfillment.

Thanks for the drumstick Eddie!
The true measurement comes at the end of the day when you look back at yourself from the mirror knowing that you stayed true to yourself.

Do this and you will be living, as OneRepublic puts it, the Good Life.

(Click HERE to see how OneRepublic's song Good Life helped me through cancer)


  1. Oh man! What a great picture of all of you!

  2. Kelly,

    Not going to lie, it was awesome. OneRepublic is such a great group of guys that are passionate about what they do.

    It's contagious!

    Hope their music inspires you as much as it does me.

    Take care,