Seeing Your Life as Extraordinary

“He bought 3 sweet potatoes from the grocery store and he harvested 139 pounds of potatoes as a result.” – Kilee Johnson

Seeing Your Life as Extraordinary

I got a call from someone I’ve done business with in the past on Saturday.

“Hi Lynn.  What’s up with you?” He asked.

“Nothing really.” I replied.  I’m just doing what I do every day; ordinary things.”

There it was again.  I was saying that I was only doing ordinary things, as if doing the ordinary would never be very exciting or make a difference at all. “Why do I do that?” I said to myself as I began to think of another conversation I recently had with Kilee Johnson.

Kilee is really in to gardening.  When we talked last she was telling me how an acquaintance of hers had purchased 3 sweet potatoes from his local grocery store last year.  Rather than eat them he decided to prepare them to plant and put them in his garden.  By the end of the harvest cycle those 3 sweet potatoes had grown 139 pounds for him to eat; an impressive return, that I thought of as being extraordinary!  But for him, the result was viewed as ordinary, something that he does on a regular basis, nothing special.  So, Extraordinary and ordinary are different for every person. 

Many years ago I was on a plane from New York to London.  I was talking with a man seated next to me and he asked why I was traveling.  I responded with, “I’m just going to Saudi Arabia to finish up a transaction.  It’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

“You mean it’s nothing out of the ordinary for you!”  He said.  “That isn’t anywhere near normal for most people.”

So, when one talks about what’s ordinary, it’s always from a personal perspective.  It is not necessarily the way someone else views it. Extraordinary is in the eye of the beholder! 

Remember that when a friend calls and asks what you’ve been up to.  What you’re doing right now may seem normal, perhaps even as drudgery.  But, it has the potential to yield something amazing in the not too different future.  The most successful people I know focus on doing small, mundane things on a daily basis.  It’s what sets them a part.  It’s what makes their results extraordinary.

See your life as extraordinary.  Others who don’t do what you do everyday see your unique talents as something special.