India, April 25 -- Scroll through Instagram, and it seems like everyone is living the perfect life. Except you. Influencers have spotless, minimal-chic apartments, while your chairs hold piled-up laundry, and your sink is filled with dishes from the day before. They fit in ice facials, Pilates, 10-step skincare, and green smoothies before 9am. You, meanwhile, are scarfing down instant coffee as you race to work.

At work, someone's smashing sales. Friends are out-earning, out-yoga-ing, out-dating you. It's like school all over again. Being average feels like being an embarrassing failure.

Science is now backing what we, sprawled on the sofa doomscrolling at 2am, have long suspected: Being average is absolutely fine. It might actually be ...