The Struggle in Being Extraordinary

I sat with this entry for a while, which is pretty fitting. Something that came up during one of my therapy sessions was the struggle to be extraordinary in today’s society. Maybe it’s because of social media. Maybe it’s because we were told we could ‘be anything we wanted’ as kids, as long as we attend college, earn a degree, secure a good job, and make a good living (whatever that meant). But the paradox of choice has a lot of us paralyzed.

We are left with thoughts of “What would happen if I became a lawyer? What about an environmental scientist? Would that make me money? Wait, should I just become a travel blogger? Am I good enough to do that? Would I be fulfilled?”

“What type of content should I post about? Should I talk about solo traveling? Or fitness content? Wait, I also like coffee and visiting coffee shops. Is that niche enough?”

We have the entire buffet menu at our fingertips, but can’t seem to make a choice? And once we do make a choice, we second-guess it, fearing that we should’ve scooped something else up to throw on our already overfilled plate.

Over the last few years of searching for answers (and spoiler, still searching for them), I learned that no one has all the answers, and we are all figuring it out as we go. The fears and struggles of being extraordinary stem from not being able to define extraordinary. We can look up ordinary vs extraordinary in the dictionary, but when it comes down to you, your life, your aspirations, only you can define what is extraordinary. And given the choice and power to do so, that’s pretty extraordinary.

You can be extraordinary in the way you connect with strangers. You can be extraordinary by making gnocchi from scratch or throwing together restaurant-quality meals from random ingredients in the pantry. You can be an extraordinary friend, cousin, or neighbor. There’s no singular way to define being extraordinary. It’s in your quirks, your openness, your warmth, and your playfulness that allow you to cultivate a community by being yourself.

So, the next time you’re struggling with the idea of sharing your content, your art, your thoughts, your music, remember that you’re already being pretty extraordinary in the creation. Go out there, share it, and continue shattering the glass ceilings that keep you from being your own kind of extraordinary.