Don’t Settle for Ordinary
Jul 17th, 2008 by admin
You’ve already experienced a number of major transitions in your life, haven’t you? Where you live, who you love, and what you do has probably changed more than once and likely will again. Even your most deeply held beliefs about yourself, others, and the nature of the universe have likely changed over time.
Sometimes these changes are completely out of our control. They can occur swiftly and unexpectedly, seeming to come out of the blue. Just as powerful are the subtle, incremental and continuous changes that alter our lives – aging is just one example.
Other times, though, we take matters into our own hands rather than wait for something or someone to change. It is a choice that is available to all of us. We don’t have to settle for anything, especially the status quo – the way things are now. And if you are willing to take on the responsibility to create change in your life, why not choose something far beyond ordinary?
So who has the final say on what is ordinary or not? You do. You know what a routine, everyday result is for you. It’s your life, and you know when you’ve settled for less than what is possible for you. Please understand that I have nothing against being ordinary. There have been many times when I’ve prayed for the ordinary - the safe heaven of normality – especially at the extreme fringes of danger, stress or fatigue. This is not about extremes at all. Rather it is about honoring the spirit within that calls you to discover and express the best of who you are.
What you may not know though is the extent of your potential. What is possible for you? Think about that for a minute. Even better, write down what is possible for you. If you are like most people, your list is limited by how you perceive yourself – your education, skills, experience, intelligence, other abilities (or disabilities) and current situation. Now notice what is not on that list. Are you willing to limit your future to that list of possibilities just because of the way you currently perceive yourself?
Whether we like it or not, that is usually the case. I know for most of my life I limited what was possible for me by holding a number of unquestioned self-concepts – what I can and can’t do; what was comfortable or uncomfortable; and what I should or shouldn’t do. Without realizing it, what I perceived as possible determined the goals that I set, the strategies I selected, and the risks I was willing to take.
In a recent BusinessWeek article Bill Buxton writes, “The most dangerous way of all to play it is so-called safe. Safe leads to atrophy and certain death — of spirit, culture and enterprise. Risk is not only not to be avoided, it is to be embraced — for survival.” That more than anything is why we don’t settle for ordinary. It’s to stay joyfully and vibrantly alive.
