I finally had time today to catch up on my blog subscriptions, and rather than making this blog all-Ellen, all-the-time, I thought I’d share some of my favorite posts as of late:

Grace Boyle on Inspiration: When It Hits the Brain, It Feels So Good

Laura Kimball on Fear: Fear is a Four-Letter Word

Beth Oppenheim on making the most of Saturday & Sunday: Everybody’s Working for the Weekend

Sarah Bray’s Series (be sure to read all 5 parts!) on changing your online image: How to Change People’s Minds About You

If you’re a fan of contemporary interior design/architecture magazines like Dwell, I’d strongly suggest you head over to Unhappy Hipsters.

Image via Unhappy Hipsters

And on a random tangent…

Maybe this is old news to everyone else, but I just found out that a movie about the founding of Facebook called The Social Network is currently in production and being directed by none other than David Fincher (of Fight Club fame).  Justin Timberlake is cast as Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster who apparently caused some turmoil amongst the Facebook crowd.  I started contemplating who I’d cast to direct and star in a movie of my life (not that I’ve done anything to merit a film….yet).

The Mom: Glenn Close

The Sister: Scarlett Johannson

The Friends: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Connelly, Katherine Heigl

The Boy: James McAvoy

The Shrink: Helen Mirren

The Psycho Roommate: Leighton Meester

Yours Truly: Zooey Deschanel

Director: Quentin Tarantino

If you’re up to the challenge, I’d love to hear who you’d cast to star in the movie of your life…personal or professional (e.g. you have an office crew that rivals that of The Office…or Wall Street).

Last night, @CarleeMallard threw an interesting idea out into the Twitter-verse: “I think we were all more interesting people in college.  Why is that?”

I was taken aback at first – I cringe to think that freshman Ellen with a penchant for power hours was more interesting than the slightly more mature, slightly less naive Ellen of present.  But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Carlee might be right.

In college we’re immersed in 4-6 completely new learning environments every September and January. Those eight semesters (or ten if you’re like me) can be entirely fresh starts – new classmates, new professors, new subject matter.  Rarely do we encounter a similar situation in the working world.

While many of us continue to seek out educational opportunities after graduation, the scope of our new learning tends be limited to those subjects in which we already have an interest.   In college, we’re often forced to explore topics that we’d never consider on our own simply for the sake of fulfilling some obscure “Communications B” requirement.

Case in point: during my sophomore year, I went out on a limb and took Genres of Asian Religious Writings (to fulfill that very requirement).  Growing up in a Catholic household in a town of less than 4,000, my knowledge of (and initial interest in) Asian religions was roughly zero.  The one thing I thought I knew about Buddhism was promptly proved incorrect during our first lecture (The Buddha is NOT a fat Chinese gentleman).  Three months later, I was enamored with Buddhism, knew a thing or two about Confucianism, and had read an abridged version of a Hindu epic.  I loved it.

Three years, I graduated with a Certificate in Religious Studies.  I took an entire class on Dante’s Divine Comedy.  When else in our lives do we have the opportunity (or the time) to do something so…obscure?

In general, I think we’re much more focused on possibilities than on actualities during our college years.  Our lives seem more…unscripted.  If we stay up until 4 in the morning discussing our life story with our new best friend, we can still roll out of bed 10 minutes before class and get where we need to be.  While we might not retain much, it’s not as though we have to worry about the professor doling out a poor performance evaluation because we’re dozing off during a meeting.

I wouldn’t completely agree that our “apex of interesting” occurs in college, but I think outside of the university, it’s easy to fall into routines and habits that limit our exposure to the new and unexpected.

Were there any classes you took in college that led to more than you’d ever expected? If you’ve already graduated, how have you continued to expose yourself to new/previously unexplored interests?

I’d never planned on staying in Madison after graduation.  After five years here, I was ready for a change; something more metropolitan, with better concerts, shopping and warmer weather.  With my closest friends in Kansas City and Des Moines, I didn’t have a lot holding me here.

While I struck out in my full-time job search, I was lucky enough to land a marketing internship at a firm in Madison, so in Madison I stayed.  As I’m not much for the bar scene, I didn’t have the easiest time connecting with other 20-somethings and meeting new people.  Or at least that’s the excuse I used.

It’s easy to feel isolated when your closest friends have moved away, and most people your age have well-established groups of friends.  But, starting the next chapter of your life in the same city isn’t as impossible as I’d thought.  If you put yourself out there, you’d be amazed to find that there are a lot of other young professionals in the same boat.

Start a book club. I love to read.  I also love to talk.  Unfortunately, when I searched for book clubs in the Madison area, all of them seemed to be “by invitation only,” or were just an excuse for soccer moms to get away from their kids and gossip under the pretense of discussing the latest Danielle Steele.  Not exactly my cup of tea.  In November, I logged onto Brazen Careerist and asked if anyone in the Madison Brazenite group would be interested in a book club.  I didn’t expect much of a response, but was pleasantly surprised.  We had our first meeting in November, and I sat nervously at Barriques, book in hand, feeling a bit like Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail (sans the whole romantic bit).  Long story short, we’re going into our fourth meeting, and I feel really lucky to have met the people I have.

Host a board game night. Do more than just join a professional organization to expand your network – dive in and start something new.  Take a page from the techies in Silicon Valley – suggest hosting board game nights (and offer to head up the effort).  While any board game could do, I’d go for Settlers of Catan.  A recent article in the Wall Street Journal quotes Mark Pincus, CEO of the gaming start-up behind FarmVille, as saying “Settlers is definitely the new live networking for our crowd.”  The game “closely approximates entrepreneurial strategy…and the random rolls of the dice force people to revamp their strategies for winning.”  Sounds like a winner to me.

Get a dog. When my friend got Bauer, his Boston Terrier, his number of friends on Facebook seemed to increase exponentially.  When I asked him why, he replied with two words: “Dog Park.”  It made sense – dogs are a great way to break the ice and meet new people.  If you can’t have a dog at your apartment, or don’t want the responsibility of having one, think about volunteering at your local Humane Society.  Chances are they’re in need of dog walkers, and you get some of the perks of having a pet without the downsides.

Move. It’s tempting to stay in the campus area of your city – it’s familiar, the rent is cheap, and if it’s anything like Madison, the night life is centered there.  I moved to a new neighborhood just a mile away from campus, and it’s shown me a side of Madison I completely missed as an undergraduate.  As it turns out, there’s still a lot to discover in this city.

One of the most loathsome phrases in the English language is “good enough.”  It makes my skin crawl (and gives me flashbacks of group projects) because “good enough” is an acknowledgment that things could be better BUT [the deadline is looming and I started too late/I'm tired of working on it/C's get degrees].

Now, before you tell me that I’m being melodramatic, I fully acknowledge that not being perfect all the time, every time, does NOT lead to mediocrity.

I admit to being a bit of a perfectionist.  I hold myself to (sometimes impossibly) high standards, and used to expect everyone else to live up to them.  It didn’t work so well.   I’ve come to understand that accepting your flaws and the inherent shortcomings of others does not put you on the path to mediocrity, nor is it settling.  I’m not advocating for perfection.  I’d advocating for completing your work in a manner that consistently reflects your personal best.  There comes a time and a place to know when to stop working; when the marginal cost outweighs the marginal benefit.  It took me a long time (and a lot of over-studying for exams) to realize this.

So, why so much disdain for “good enough?”

Mediocrity begets free-riding. Equitable Contribution (or lack thereof) is one of the theorized causes of social loafing.  High-performers are less likely to put forth their full contribution if they feel fellow members of the team are slacking.  This is a vicious cycle, and eventually, only the minimum of work required to get by will be completed.   While a high-performer may refuse to settle and put forth extra effort deliver a project she is proud of, this is too heavy a burden for an individual to carry all the time.

Mediocrity breeds contempt. If you were ever the smart or geeky kid in middle school, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  A culture of mediocrity systematically destroys the confidence and self-esteem of individuals who are exceptional by ostracizing them for going above and beyond.  Eventually, the individual will grow tired of being bullied and leave, or will lose the spark that could have led to great things.

Mediocrity fosters a culture of “yes.” In an environment where mediocrity is the standard, it’s easy to surround yourself with people who are quick dole out compliments but would rather bite off their tongue than point out something that could be done better.  If your views are never challenged, sooner or later you’re bound to find yourself in an Emperor’s New Clothes-type situation, with only your ego and self-importance to blame.

When you’re in a work environment that gets by on “good enough,” even pats itself on the back for not expending a single ounce of effort more than was necessary to “get the job done,” it’s easy to find yourself beginning to settle for the same.  Don’t.

Don’t lose the sense of pride you get from doing your best.  Not all rewards are extrinsic, and in the long run, fitting in is over-rated.  Take risks; go out on a limb and chance that you might fail miserably.  If you opt for “good enough” and fail, you’ll always wonder if the outcome would have been different had you done your best.

“It’s a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.” – Isaac Disraeli

What are your thoughts on “good enough?”  Have you ever worked in a place where mediocrity was accepted as the status quo?  How did you deal with it?

Branding for the Olympics can’t be an easy task.  On one hand, you have to adhere to a stringent set of guidelines from the Olympic Committee that haven’t changed much over the years.  On the other, it’s your city’s time in the limelight, and your design should speak to your own culture and history, or perhaps to where your country is headed in the future.

Finding the delicate balance between honoring the legacy and history of the games and claiming the games as your own must cause designers a thousand headaches. This past week, I’ve been reading up on the history of the Olympic brand and the process of creating the emblem for each of the games.

As the Olympics get underway tonight in Vancouver, I have to say that their emblem really stands out from many of the cities who have gone before.

The design is based on an inukshuk, a stone guidepost created by Canada’s Inuit people to guide travelers on their journey across the country’s arctic regions.  The game’s official website states that the “inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.”  For an event welcoming tens of thousands of people from across the globe, it seems like Vancouver couldn’t have picked a better symbol.

Some other strong examples from the past 20 years:

Compare those to the logos for the games taking place in the US in the past 20 years:

If I summed up my feelings about the emblems for the US games in one word, it would be underwhelmed.  In my eyes, they fall completely flat, and speak nothing about what makes the United States or the title city unique.  Where’s the nod to our history?  To our values?  Beijing and Sydney’s designs both speak strongly to their  culture; there’s nothing generic-feeling about them.  If you saw only the logo, chances are you’d be able to guess the country it represented.  On the other hand, from its font to the human figure, the logo for 1996 Atlanta games seems more Romanesque than American.  Salt Lake City’s snowflake emblem was a no-brainer.

As much as I like Vancouver’s, the emblem that really strikes a chord with me was designed for Rio’s 2016 Summer Olympics.

Rio’s emblem seems to highlight the zest for life that Brazilians are famous for. The design was loosely based on Rio’s Sugarloaf Mountain, reflecting “the pride that the city takes in its natural assets.”  I love that an exclamation point is used in place of the 1 in the logo; it’s obvious that the city is truly excited about the games and their bid.  Rio blew their big competitor in the bid for the games right out of the water.  By comparison, Chicago’s logo looks more like branding for a telecommunications company.

What are your thoughts on the Olympic games?  Are there any emblems or opening ceremonies that really stick out in your mind as showcasing the best of their country’s culture?