Episode 197. The Average Paradox

Welcome to another episode of the In-situ health and fitness podcast! This week on the show, we dive into the concept of being "average." What does it mean to be average in various aspects of our lives, and why do we often feel the pressure to be more than that? We explore the impact of social media, the psychology of selling, and the endless journey of self-improvement. Join us and discover why you just being here, listening to the podcast, already makes you well above average!

Chapters

• 0:00 Exploring the concept of average and podcast listener statistics.
• 2:43 Questioning the need to be above average.
• 9:15 Social media's impact on the perception of being average.
• 9:30 Why the self improvement industry is contributing to self doubt.
• 14:30 The road to success looks different for everyone.
• 17:04 Low gym membership rates and physical activity levels in America and Australia
• 21:36 Only 8 to 12% of people actively track and improve living standards.
• 25:20 Why this matters.

Transcript

 what is up in situ family thank you for
 being well above average and in the top
 9.64% of the population
 9.64% yep the top 9% the top 9%
 everybody listening of the population
 why you're awesome how good so today is
 all about being average or what is
 average so if you listen to our
 comparison self comparison episode this
 is I reckon going to follow along from
 that if you didn't listen to it I reckon
 you go back and have a listener to that
 one and then come back and join us on
 this
 episode all right so I thought it'd be
 fun to just do a couple of average stats
 about
 podcasting so
 there are
 5.19 billion internet
 users yeah and there
 is 5 million people that listen to
 podcasts so that is
 9.64% of the population who have access
 to the internet listen to podcasts
 that's crazy because I consume so many
 podcasts I assume that everyone else
 does the same right yeah exactly and
 that's what this whole episode's about
 like we just assume everybody listens to
 podcast but it is quite such it is a
 small popular percent of the population
 yeah now what country do you think
 listens to the high like what country
 has the highest rate of listeners to
 podcast surely the US you would think so
 everybody listening watching what's your
 guess like I'm in
 class Indonesia oh okay that was
 probably going to be my next guest there
 is a lot of people in Indonesia on the
 internet right A lot of people perod
 yeah and then they're on the internet as
 well so I thought that was pretty cool
 stats that is cool so what makes an
 average
 person why are we talking about this now
 if you go back to our last Q&A we had
 Xavier first time longtime listener
 first time caller asks a question and I
 work with z and he was asking me a
 question and and I didn't really answer
 him to start with and then the more I
 thought about this I'm like oh my God
 this is a huge topic that I want to get
 off my chest so the reason we talking
 about this and getting it's so I can get
 this off my chest and babble on to all
 you listening so he can listen as well
 wait but what's the question exactly
 so zve he goes to me Jack why can't I
 just be
 average like why do I have to wake up up
 at 4:00 a.m. have a cold shower slap
 myself in the face have this supplement
 do a workout achieve this journal like
 why do I have to be doing all this stuff
 and I'm just happy being average MH and
 I'm like I didn't have an answer for him
 so I don't know if he just thought I was
 being rude or I I just started thinking
 and I think we got distracted and had to
 go do some work but then I come back to
 him and said Z you realize you're well
 above average so Z is a father of too
 okay so him and his partner both work he
 still
 exercises at least I'd say four to five
 times a week he prepares all his own
 food so and his kids so they pretty much
 cook all that I I assume they cook at
 night because he's always talking about
 meal prepping when he's cooking dinner
 and all that sort of stuff and always
 see him eating his own food that he's
 made so he never eats
 out and that is well above average that
 is really hard for most people to do
 right it's not necessarily hard or
 anything it's just Mo like as we're
 going to go through this episode I've
 got a fair few stats here like he is
 well above average so what I want to
 talk about what is average and why do we
 feel like we need to be more than
 average yeah CU it's always like we feel
 like if we just stop doing what we're
 doing and settle with what we're
 currently doing we're going to get left
 behind and and why yeah and who says we
 can't keep doing what we're doing and be
 happy so when I say the word average
 what is average I you you've asked me
 like 17 times today and I don't freaking
 know what average
 is so there's no such I don't think
 there's any such thing as average exact
 but because it's different to every
 person and every person situation
 average in what as well yeah so what are
 we talking about like what is that ntion
 cing working sleeping like your view on
 the world like mindset yeah education
 that's a thing so I want you to keep
 that in mind as well when we're talking
 about this this is just us talking about
 what we think of is average it's not
 right it's not wrong it's just what we
 think so why do we need to be more than
 average cuz I feel like it goes back to
 the self-comparison thing we don't want
 to be
 well although in the self comparison
 episode we spoke about how we want to be
 the same as everybody else and we want
 to fit in so theoretically we're
 striving to be
 average and there's only a small percent
 of the population that doesn't want to
 be the same as everybody else and
 doesn't want to fit in so are they the
 people that are trying to be above
 average because I feel like in the
 broader sense average would be the you
 doing the same as everybody else around
 you and being above average would be you
 trying to be different and do better
 than those around you I don't know I
 feel like we've already used the word
 average too many times it has no meaning
 anymore it's going to be good for Google
 searching yeah um exactly so obviously
 evolutionary wise social EV social
 Evolution evolution is that the right
 terminology yeah being average was safe
 you wanted to be like everybody else and
 fit in so you weren't The Outsider the
 out of the group and then froze to death
 overnight because you weren't near the
 fire so obviously you know being
 average in a social sense is quite good
 but I feel like there's over especially
 over the last couple of years there's
 been this push to be more than average
 yeah like if if you're not more than
 that then you're falling behind yeah and
 are
 you it's just so strange and I got three
 points here social media selling which
 moves into
 self-improvement so as we've spoken
 about before if you've just listened to
 the social uh self-comparison one social
 media plays a big role in what you think
 about yourself especially these
 days uh you know we're seeing the
 highlights of everybody else so the
 average of your perception of the world
 and your friend circle is a lot higher
 than what it actually
 is so social media is just
 I don't know who's dictating what
 average is and what above average is too
 because I feel like a lot of the people
 that also use the internet don't post
 like since moving here I've gained a lot
 more followers from people that I know
 and people that I actually know in
 person don't post like hardly any of
 their life so then who are the people
 that are posting their life and why are
 we trying to be like them do they even
 matter are they the minority the people
 who are posting so much on social media
 and everyone else is just living their
 best life in private you know what I
 mean yeah and I I get that a lot usually
 when I'm quiet on social media I'm
 trying to turn this around at the moment
 usually when I'm quiet on social media
 I'm very successful successful mhm so
 I'm because you're focusing on other
 things yeah I'm busy I'm working for a
 lot of people I'm making a lot of money
 and I haven't got time to post on social
 media but then when I'm quiet
 and I haven't got a lot going on and
 posting a lot on social media
 everybody's like Jackie killing it I'm
 like it just doesn't add up yeah and
 again like I said I'm trying to reverse
 that so it's you know I am busy at the
 moment and still trying to post so it
 evens out MH and you do get an average
 of my life MH um but yeah like I said
 self-improvement and selling
 self-improvement and trying to be above
 average I feel like when you're selling
 to to improve somebody's health and
 well-being you're trying to tell them
 the average so come up to our level yeah
 be better than everybody else yeah
 improve yourself yeah
 and I just thought it would be
 interesting to pull up a few stats on
 what's the self self-improvement
 industry is worth so you would have to
 be
 relatively new right cuz I feel like oh
 maybe like what would be considered
 self-improvement
 like 50 years ago exact well books yeah
 again like videos like vhs's DVDs DVDs
 cassette tapes yeah
 like but so I I I'm getting all right at
 prompting for uh gpts so I've used that
 so I've got it to do anything to do with
 self- Improvement so any product or
 service
 globally so
 does that make sense you've you've
 you've got it to what so what so I'm
 going to Rattle off you know worth so in
 billions in us in a second and that is
 including all products and services to
 do with self-improvement how much is the
 industry is worth yeah okay so in
 2015 it was worth just under I'd say
 that's probably eight or n
 billion US yeah uh dollars globally so
 every person on Earth spending money on
 self-improvement it was worth about
 billion today or I went back to 2023
 because we haven't had a full 24 yet M
 does anybody want to have a guest from
 the audience the audience 14
 billion so it hasn't even been 10 years
 so I'm going to put this graph graph up
 on I'll put I'll I don't know if I can
 put in the show notes but put it on
 YouTube overing us so you can have a
 look at it so it was gr pretty steadily
 until I'd say Co and then Co has just
 shot up and up and up so like in the
 last two years it's
 jumped what almost two billion where it
 was maybe climbing half a billion to a
 billion each year but then over the last
 couple years it's just like two billion
 two billion like so it's huge so
 when the what in what includes the
 self-improvement industry though do you
 know like is Fitness included in that is
 nutrition included in that is therapy
 included in that or is it no so
 basically this would be self-improvement
 books mhm so how to improve yourself uh
 courses on how to improve yourself at
 discarding health and fitness because
 that's its own
 industry um
 I guess like seeing a psychologist and
 all that sort of stuff could be I didn't
 dive into it that deep um just because I
 just wanted to get a general number uh
 we'll get into Health and Fitness in a
 minute so I thought that was just a
 very good correlation between you know
 how much the industry is growing in
 dollar amounts and how much it's growing
 in our heads on how we need to be above
 average as well because again well
 obviously how much money is being spent
 on ads that we seeing everywhere if this
 is the amount of money that's being
 spent in the industry like everywhere I
 feel like there's ads on social media
 there's Billboards there's ads on
 buses Google YouTube like everything
 that we touch has some sort of AD well
 how many like when you want to start a
 business these days you know the the
 thing is you know what problem are you
 trying to solve solve a problem and then
 usually self Improvement is quite easy
 thing to do you've improved yourself
 I've solved that problem so I'm going to
 go teach others how to do that and I
 feel like that's just been a massive
 growth and then there's also businesses
 teaching people how to open a business
 to help people other people so it's just
 been this massive chain of just
 self-improvements this and that and I
 feel like this graph shows that you
 know trying to get people to feel
 average and improve is just a dollar
 amount yeah and because I feel like it's
 something you can't really cap either
 like even if you are super successful
 and wealthy and have like a good house
 car
 pool I there's still endless things with
 self-improvement like you can always be
 better you can
 always like level up or try this new
 thing or this new way of thinking or
 this new food or this new yoga pose like
 always something that someone can sell
 you to say that this will make you a
 better person because there's no
 infinite answer to what a good person is
 right so it's like an endless pit of
 money exactly and people are willing to
 go oh well I'm only average I'll buy
 this course or do that read that book or
 do that yeah I'm going to get better and
 also uh did you can you bring up like
 the Nadal the tennis player warm-up
 thing and just go through that again I
 feel like that's a good example of how
 everybody's different everybody's
 journey is
 different um and the way to success is
 very different so yeah the thing that I
 had what two weeks ago on the wrap-up
 was the road to success looks different
 for everyone so it's not often in
 history that there's three like absolute
 Champions at anything at one time
 usually there's one that holds it at one
 time but right now or I guess semi-
 recently we've had feda Nadal and jovic
 all holding like top spots in tennis yet
 they all warm up for the same game and
 to compete against each other extremely
 differently so federa comes out onto the
 court laughing doing trick shots and
 just messing around Nadal comes out full
 on screaming and hitting the ball as
 hard as he can and being really serious
 and then jovic is like an emotionless
 robot and just quiet and focused and
 calm so all three of them are vastly
 different different ways to approach the
 same game for the same goal
 right and and that's what I mean
 so what is average there like for them
 to go and sell those you know
 self-improvement ways yeah they're all
 going to help people but again what are
 you improving and what's average there's
 no average everybody just does their own
 thing to
 succeed um so the next little bit I just
 want to go over a couple of different
 stats to show because I know every
 single person listening is going to be
 in the percentile that is actually doing
 these things so it's more like to show
 everybody listening and what I said to Z
 when he asks this question you are above
 average I feel like unfortunately the
 bar for average is getting set lower and
 lower as we'll see for these stats but
 everybody listening like I've already
 said you're in the top 9% of the
 population so no matter what if you
 don't change anything you're in my
 opinion you're already a person that is
 better than
 91% of the
 population
 okay um where do we start where do we
 start so a lot of these I've tried to
 get the best info as I could
 unfortunately due to co Australian stats
 are very skew and I couldn't find of
 good stats unless I went back to say
 2018 and I feel like that was just very
 different times so here's an interesting
 one approximately
 21.2% of Americans have a gym membership
 do you think Australia beats
 them surely beat America or do you
 reckon
 well I don't know because our
 populations are really different
 exactly we are 15
 .3% so 15 just over 15% of Australians
 have a gym membership so technically
 more Australians would than Americans on
 average because their population is a
 lot bigger than ours so again a lot of
 these stats are probably I've gone with
 the American stats because like Max said
 people and it's better off you know the
 population population of Australia fits
 in one American city so we're better off
 looking at American stats than a showing
 stats um
 so even if we say 25% of people have a
 gym membership that's still pretty low
 and I'd say definitely everybody
 listening has a gym membership or is
 working out at home in their home gym
 because I know few of the people
 listening do that as well so again
 already there you guys are killing
 it
 now
 76.3 of adults are reported engaging in
 some sort of physical activity
 sounds pretty good perent 76 yeah per so
 76% of people adults engage in some sort
 of activity mhm at least once a month
 what that's crazy once a month
 yeah okay so once a
 month 70% of the population do something
 y so again everybody listening you're
 already killing it in that regards as
 well
 um this one is from an Australian the
 Australian welfare Health and Welfare
 Department uh they
 reckon a substantial percentage of
 adults do not reach the
 recommended activity of 150 minutes per
 week of activities 22 minutes per day
 yeah I just added that in there just to
 give you an idea so 150 minutes per week
 we is the minimum standard and most
 adults don't reach that
 and substantial percentage of adults
 don't reach that so that's crazy 22
 minutes a day and you like and that's
 dedicated exercise not okay I'm active
 all day doing an active job yeah you
 might be active but then those people
 don't even spend any time doing
 dedicated activities wow yeah pretty
 scary yeah so again yes the bar is set
 quite low but I know everybody listening
 is already well above the bar well above
 average yeah and I I'm saying this
 because a lot of people will feel like
 they're less average like zve did when
 he was asking this question like he's
 just like fed up like I feel like
 because all these people are saying I
 need to do all this stuff to become
 better and he's already killing it yeah
 and I know every single person listening
 is already killing it as well and do the
 people on social media that say you need
 to do X Y and Z even do X Y and Z
 themselves half of the
 time you know yeah like it
 just exaggerating on the Internet is
 what gets you across the internet yeah
 and being very extreme with that one
 thing sells things yeah uh I feel like
 we're very transparent on what we do and
 don't do I guess journaling we've done
 that in the past we do it occasionally
 we don't always do it but we do
 recommend it mhm it's not like I'm
 trying to sell you to do it it's just
 like it will help you do it yeah uh
 let's go into food mhm uh where are
 we so a surve found that 25% of people
 cook at home more than five times per
 week so only 25% of the population cook
 five meals at home
 what that's insane 25% 5 days a week I
 guess like on the weekends but what what
 what are that the rest of that per AG
 doing during the week getting takeout
 all of the time that's crazy I can't
 imagine doing that yeah like we get we
 we've had takeway
 twice twice we twice a month out no
 Twice ever like we' probably had take
 away twice ever yeah since being here
 like we go out to eat
 yeah maybe we've had takeway once when
 my mom stayed I think your mom's been
 here twice so twice and we've had
 takeway
 twice so yeah like again if you who eats
 six meals at home and prepare and cook
 six meals at home that could even be
 preparing one meal and cook it eating it
 for the next three nights M you are well
 above average like absolutely killing it
 yeah that is a very low bar so if you if
 you yeah I'll leave that one there um so
 I found this one interesting again this
 one could be
 you could interpret this data any way
 you want and I think these numbers are
 just made up so anybody out there
 listening don't agree with it please do
 your own research and let me know what
 you come up with so only 8 to 12% of
 people actively track and attempt to
 improve two aspects of their living
 standards
 so people that wear watches sleep
 wellbeing exercise food and all that
 sort of stuff so only say let's say 10%
 of the popultion track and improve on
 those things how many people do you see
 wearing an Apple Watch so many yeah what
 do they just not use it they just use it
 for texting and games and all of the
 other things
 yeah but again like the research could
 be like if somebody's asking you do you
 use your Apple watch to be healthier
 they're probably going to say yes in the
 surveys yeah true so again the data
 could be all but um yeah so another one
 I found this one interesting anybody
 listening that knows more about this I
 would like you to verify
 it so when you get your Bloods done it's
 the average of the surrounding people
 and their
 patients so the people in the clinic the
 people that have been to the clinic so
 the people in the clinic uhhuh so I
 heard this on a podcast a while ago and
 then I tried to find a little bit of
 research so there is no National
 Standard levels for vitamins and
 minerals so yes there's naal standards
 for colle cholesterol testosterone that
 sort of stuff but say your iron
 levels from what I can tell the CL when
 the clinic opens they test everybody in
 the clinic get their bloods done and
 then from there on every patient adds to
 the database and the average is the
 database of the people coming in so like
 if I got my Bloods done in band stale
 where I'm grew up my results would
 probably look different to if I got my
 Bloods done no so the results would be
 the same but their recommendations or
 you're a little high or a little low
 going to be different that's what I
 meant so that my comparison to the
 average would be different between
 getting it done in Melbourne and getting
 it done in the country yeah or vict
 Victoria to Sydney type thing that I
 feel like that's really that should be
 really wrong right that's what I think
 and that's why I'd like somebody out
 there to so to you that is actually in
 the industry to
 clarify clarify that because that sounds
 crazy and if that is true that is scary
 yeah because who goes and gets their
 blood test done like not generally
 people that are healthy not worrying
 about it you know just eating normal
 food don't get go and get their bloods
 done so only people that are feeling
 average unwell getting sick all that
 sort of stuff go and get their bloods
 done so the average of your Bloods is
 very low yeah wow you know what I mean
 so again that
 again would love somebody to double
 check that but that is a little bit of a
 scary stat as well that's
 crazy so moral of the
 story everyone here is above average
 exactly and that's the whole point of
 this episode and that's what I was
 trying to get over to Z and what I said
 at the start of the episode so Z I know
 you're listening this one's for you and
 everybody listening I know his question
 at the start why do I need to buy all
 stuff and do all this stuff like why
 can't I just be happy with what I'm
 doing yeah you can be you can because
 you are well above average you are
 killing it um and the the stats show
 like even if you don't do one or two of
 those things you're probably still doing
 some of the other things so it's going
 to put you in a higher you know
 percentile of the population improving
 your health so even if you track your
 Macros every now and then or you track
 your sleep you're you're going to be
 well above average well above average
 yeah so anything else to add to that I
 don't think so I hope this episode gave
 everybody a little bit of a pick boost
 an ego boost not just an ego boost a
 realization that you don't have to be
 continuously improving yourself you
 don't have to do crazy things to just be
 above average either so if you are happy
 where you're at and enjoy doing what
 you're doing keep doing it yeah you
 don't need to be ruining yourself
 doesn't have to be super dramatic you
 don't have to do
 like the endless endless bucket list of
 things that people
 give especially yeah you don't have to
 add to that 14 billion dollar industry
 of
 self-improvement cool awesome thanks
 again everybody obviously if you've
 lasted this long you've enjoyed it
 please give us a thumbs up uh comment on
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 us a five our rating and a review
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 algorithm and make sure you follow or
 subscribe if you're new here because we
 have some great episodes coming up some
 pretty cool guests and some different
 things coming your way all right see you
 all in the next episode bye
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