The bar is low

At some point the standard for what deserves praise dropped so far that completely normal behaviour started getting treated like a personal achievement.

Someone goes to therapy and announces it like they’ve just completed a marathon. Someone reads a book and talks about it as if they wrote it themselves. Someone cooks a meal and expects a round of applause. At what point did the bare minimum of functioning as an adult become something worth celebrating?

Someone pays their bills on time and wants to be called responsible. Someone stays faithful in a relationship and expects praise for not being a terrible person. Someone wakes up and goes to the gym three times a week and suddenly they’re an inspiration. These are not accomplishments. These are just things people are supposed to do.

A white person dances on rhythm and people in the room act like they’ve just witnessed a magical moment. Someone who isn’t typically associated with a sport plays it decently and people around them can’t stop talking about it. Normal things. Completely normal things.

And it keeps going. Someone buys a car and everyone around them celebrates like they built it from scratch. Someone travels abroad for the first time in their twenties and gets treated like an explorer. Someone apologises after being wrong and people call them emotionally mature. An apology. That’s where we are.

The issue is straightforward. When everything gets praised, nothing means anything. People have clapped so long and so loudly for so little that genuine effort, real discipline, and actual achievement have nowhere left to stand.

And that’s exactly why expectations have become so warped. When you praise someone for the bare minimum long enough, they start to believe they deserve a significant return for very little effort. They expect recognition at work for just showing up. They expect gratitude in relationships for doing what they were supposed to do anyway. They expect life to reward them generously for meeting the most basic requirements of being a functional person.

Normal is not impressive. It never was. Treating it like it is doesn’t raise anyone up. It just makes it harder to recognise the things that actually should.