You Don’t Need to Be Extraordinary to Have a Place in the World
By: Lance Baker
Tags: Existential, Inspiration, Life Lessons, Personal Growth, Life

You Don’t Need to Be Extraordinary to Have a Place in the World

There is great liberation in letting enough be enough and simply enjoying what you have.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

There always has and always will be a desire for fame, glory, and prestige in society. It is innate to want to grow and become something more than one is. However, things have been changing tremendously with the growth of technology, particularly the internet. These changes have come with great freedom — and with great heaviness.

In the distant past, the possibilities for who or what someone could become were largely dictated by the traditional structure they existed in. Many people would take up the vocations set forth by their ancestors. One’s skills and worldview largely came from those whom they did life with. The world outside of the local community hardly existed except in stories and tales. Dreams of becoming royalty and living in a castle somewhere were pure fantasy. The stream of tradition had a natural way of carrying people along.

Today, we have ventured out into the great ocean where the streams of tradition no longer carry us along. We can do and become anything we’d like. Our options are not limited to the vocations of our ancestors. Our worldview can be shaped by any book, video, college course, and or an immersive experience abroad anywhere in the world. Our mentors can be from any walk of life guiding us in any vocation we can possibly imagine.

The dream of becoming royalty and living in a castle is no longer pure fantasy. We see common people suddenly launched into million-dollar lifestyles through the success of their YouTube channel, the Instagram brand they built, the business they started, or a random viral moment. We are inundated with stories, ads, and marketing campaigns about people who built businesses from nothing, who can freely travel the world, who claim they’ve found the secret to life.

It is easy to feel like we’ve done something wrong or haven’t worked hard enough if we have a regular 9–5 job or aren’t on track to retire in our 40s.

Some of these feelings are reactionary and self-imposed, but we are also made to feel this way. So many of the rags to riches stories mock the “rat race” or the insignificance of a simple home with a modest sedan in the driveway. We are made to think that we don’t have more because we haven’t tried hard enough. We are made to feel as if our average life is an embarrassment.

If the traditional structure of historical communities was stifling because of its limitations; the freedom of modern life can be paralyzing because of its options.

Putting the “Ordinary” in Extraordinary

I’m not sure that we’ve been able to develop a sustainable existential framework to cope with the tremendous technological changes that have occurred over the past few decades. Many of us live lives of comfort that people could have only dreamed of centuries ago. We have warm homes, clean water, workplaces with free coffee, personal vehicles with GPS and stereos, smartphones, and yet so many of us feel like something is wrong because we aren’t rich, famous, or doing something extraordinary with our lives.

When did an ordinary life become something to be ashamed of? Have the pressures of technological advancement made us unable to enjoy the everyday beauty of our lives?

Maybe it is actually extraordinary to be able to find meaning and gratitude in the ordinariness of life?

It is easy to feel like our life lacks significance because we are not other people. It is easy to feel like we are just an ordinary person in a sea of billions of other ordinary people.

However, when we stop trying to be someone else and cease sacrificing the present moment by longing for what we do not have, we are free to realize that our life is a gift. The more we embrace our “ordinary” nature, the freer we are to become our truest selves. The more we become our truest selves, the more of a gift we become to those we love.

This isn’t complacency or settling. Sometimes we do need to change and work on ourselves, but this is a different type of work. Instead of looking outward for the thing or circumstance that will finally make us happy and give our lives significance, we look inward. By doing our inner-work we grow in truth an authenticity. To become oneself is to let our present moment awareness resonate and create depth in all areas of life. There is no dollar amount on an authentic life. No number of followers can grant you inner peace.

What is more extraordinary than the freedom to enjoy your life without the need for fame, fortune, or an audience?

What is more extraordinary than feeling like enough is enough and being able to enjoy the life that you already have?

For more on this theme, check out The School of Life’s video below.