When you choose to do something extraordinary, why is it such a surprise when the extraordinary thing ends up harder than you think? And when it ends up harder, why is the natural reaction to turn around to return to the ordinary. No matter how ordinary the ordinary seemed before, when attempting to do the extraordinary, it seems comfortable and peaceful.
I have a non ordinary life. I have chosen to do things that ordinary people would find amazing. It isn't because I am not ordinary. In fact, most of the time I feel very ordinary. I feel as if everyone can do better than what I can without even trying. But non ordinary isn't enough.
Ordinary, non ordinary or extraordinary are to my mind three different things. Ordinary describes something mundane, usual, normality to a point of bordom. Non ordinary is exactly that. It isn't yet extraordinary, but it isn't ordinary. It is sitting on the fence, wanting to be doing something different, but not able to find that thing to set onself apart. It is a half hearted attempt to be extraordinary.
But extraordinary. This is a cut above. This is more than unusual, it is something that makes people wonder.
A Soldier: This is one who lives a life a cut above the rest, and as such naturally demands the respect of those around. A civilian life is not for this. In their training, their job, their task, their goals, they demand more of themselves than any ordinary person. Whether it is in their sense of duty, their personal desire for power, their sacrifice for the greater good, they are in search of something that sets them above the rest.
An Athlete: An athlete lives a non-ordinary life. To take an athlete from a non ordinary life to an extraordinary life, sacrifice, drive and passion are needed. They take a sacrifice that to some would seem ridiculous, but to them it is a way of life. Hardship, hunger, pain, discomfort, all these aspects of their daily life result in an extraordinary result. For this, it is all worth it to even have a chance of the glory that being the best brings. As such, they are respected as extraordinary.
As someone on the search for the extraordinary, I must take hardship, pain, discomfort and the unusual as part of what it is. When hardship takes me by surprise in the pursuit of non-ordinary, I must set myself apart and not give up the path I have chosen. Only in this I can change from ordinary to non-ordinary, and then from that to extraordinary.
The thing that sets apart the extraordinary isn't luck. It isn't comfort. It isn't being in the right place at the right time. It is the determination not to give up when it becomes harder than you thought. It is to accept the pain, the discomfort and to realise all these things pale in comparison to what the result, what the glory and the prize is.
Fight to be extraordinary.
