Just So You Know, There’s Nothing Wrong With Living An Ordinary Life

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the choices I’ve made about my life and what has happened to get me to where I’m at right now. It seems that more and more people strive for a life that is anything but “ordinary” these days. We live in a society that is fueled more by an idealism we create through social media, where the lives we look in on are anything but ordinary. These take up so much of our energy that we forget our own visions and aspirations.

I think we are scared of settling for a life we label “ordinary,” because living an ordinary life, with an ordinary job, car, house, family, and lifestyle surely wouldn’t be enough. Is this going to be enough? is a question I have asked myself many times before. Will my job impact others lives in a positive way? Will running the Great North Run raise enough money to make a difference? Will my life have a positive influence on others?

But then I realized something today. What if the life we think is ordinary has the potential to be extraordinary in ways we didn’t see before? It may not be anything that will move mountains, grab news headlines, or even be something you remember in years to come, but we can still do great things to leave our mark and bring about something healthy and positive.

Barack Obama once said, “A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.” And that is something we can all strive for every day. It’s not getting approval from many that matters, it’s succeeding for yourself, knowing your worth, and using your qualities to leave your mark and make the world a better place.

To make the ordinary extraordinary, it will require our attention to be focused on the here and now, instead of looking on Instagram thinking look how successful they are. Channel your energy into what is going on in your life right now. Grab your own life by the balls and make the best of each new day and opportunity. That task you do every day at work, how could you change it and make it better? The studying you have undertaken, how can you absorb and get the very best from all you are learning? That child you are raising, what fun and new experiences can you bring to their day that will help their minds grow?

Instead of trying to strive for more and more every day, we could focus our attention on being present and put our energy into doing our best with what we have. So, opt for the ordinary life, stop pressuring yourself to have a life that looks good on Instagram, be the boss of your own empire, and you might soon see that your life is anything but ordinary.