“Embrace the pain.” “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” “Push through the boundaries.” “Nothing will work unless you do.” “What doesn’t destroy you makes you stronger.” “Plenty of time to rest when you’re dead.”
Every time Perry, my spin class instructor, unleashes one of his “fitspirational” clichés, I have to suppress a snicker. It’s not the cheese factor (anyone who regularly attends Taylor Swift-themed spin classes has clearly welcomed cheese into their lives). It’s that in no other area of modern life would you be able to come out with this stuff – and keep your job.
If Perry worked in an office, rather than a gym, and he told one of his grumbling employees to “push through the pain”, he’d be having his last rites read to him by HR faster than Gregg Wallace after a late-night social media “unburdening”.
If Perry worked in a university, he’d be juggling lawsuits daily – with students queuing up to complain about how his bully-boy tactics had imperilled their mental health. Even schools – once considered mind gyms, places where teachers were allowed to say “try harder”, “do better”, “no pain, no gain” without fear of reprisals – seem to be shrinking away from the notion of excellence and embracing the culture of “good enough”.
This was my first grumpy old lady thought when I read about the new “anti-perfection” classes being laid on at Lady Eleanor Holles, a selective independent girls’ school in south-west London.
Designed to ease pressure on its high-achieving pupils (the secondary school consistently ranks within the top 10 in league tables), these lessons will examine why young women so often feel the need to excel in every area of their lives, from academic achievement and popularity to appearance. They will encourage pupils to mistrust the illusions conjured up by social media and urge them to feel proud of their real-world achievements, flaws and imperfections.
It’s hard for any parent to disagree with the thinking. Likewise, most of us will probably nod our way through the reasoning of the educational consultant and Gen Z expert masterminding these classes, Chloe Combi.
Combi says that because we live in a culture so focused on achievement and status, this often leads to girls making “catastrophic diagnoses” about their mental health, rather than accepting they are simply having a bad day. Who is going to argue with that? She wants girls to look up to gracious losers such as Kamala Harris and Emma Raducanu: both shining examples of successful people who have, nevertheless, lost on occasion. Because sometimes you don’t have to be the best. All together now: sometimes good is good enough.
