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aim for the middle: how to achieve happiness, success, and love through the unbridled power of mediocrity
by m.k. jackson

The satirical takedown of the self-help industrial complex that proves a life of realized adequacy is far more fulfilling than one of elusive excellence.

elevator pitch
Aim for the Middle is a satirical guide that challenges self-help culture’s obsession with constant improvement, arguing a data-backed case that success and happiness aren’t achieved by chasing excellence, but by choosing the more sustainable middle ground of mediocrity.

author bio
M.K. Jackson is a Los Angeles–based writer, humorist, and self-described
existential fatalist. Blending sharp satire, profane humor, and unflinching
emotion, Jackson writes about mortality, grief, ambition, self-delusion, futility, and failure, through the peepholes of nostalgia, and absurdity.

key selling points

• A satirical takedown of the self-help industrial complex and its relentless demands for improvement.

• A counterargument to the cult of excellence for anyone exhausted by investing more and getting less in return.

• Get more of what matters by wasting less on what doesn’t.

• Irreverent satire, absurdist humor, and deeply personal memoir in a book that takes mediocrity far more seriously than anyone reasonably should.

audience

• Adults seeking realistic approaches to personal growth

• Fans of humorous nonfiction

• Readers dealing with transition or reinvention

comparable titles

• The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight (2015)

• Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze by Svend Brinkmann (2017)

• F*ck Feelings by Michael Bennett & Sarah Bennett (2015)

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (2016)

• How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books by Jolenta Greenberg & Kristen Meinzer

the high price of aiming high

The formula for success has remained remarkably consistent: work hard, aim high, keep climbing, and the rewards will follow. The entire self-help industrial complex has built itself around that promise. But for the average person, does all that effort produce results proportional to the cost?

That question sits at the heart of Aim for the Middle. The book challenges one-size-fits-all prescriptions for achieving happiness, success, and love with a different answer: bring your expectations and aspirations into line with your actual abilities and potential.

Not everyone is destined for the same level of excellence. By making an unapologetic case for the average, the adequate, and yes, even the mediocre, the book argues that knowing who you are—and what you can reasonably expect from yourself—is the surest route to authentic fulfillment in life.