I was researching someone online and came across a so-called motivational site urging young people to get up and do something… to make something of themselves… to stand out from the crowd or risk sinking into obscurity… fate that appeared to be almost ‘worse than death’ to the site’s author.
For a motivational piece, I found it rather counterproductive. All that I could see that it was doing was reinforcing, in the minds of the young and as yet uncertain, that they obviously were not good enough as they were. In order to have value within their society, they were being told, they would need to change… become something ‘other’ than they are. Different… and by implication, better.
That we are all works in progress, no matter what our age, and that we all need to continue to learn from our lives should go without saying. I doubt we would be here were there not that opportunity to grow from our experiences and how we face the events through which we live. But such growth should be a natural progression… like the fruit that follows the flower and the bud… not some enforced and calculated action taken to make us ‘look good’ in the eyes of others. Being allowed to be ourselves should matter far more than that.
I see nothing wrong with being ‘ordinary’. The word, in spite of its negative connotations comes from the same root as ‘order’… and without order, what would exist or function?
Most of us are ‘ordinary’. Our own kind of ordinary… because it is the only kind we know. Other people are extraordinary in our eyes. They do things we have never done, achieve things we have never even attempted, go places we will never go. We look at those who have done these marvellous things, not with envy, but with both respect and appreciation. ‘Ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ will mean different things to each of us.
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Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
I also feel that this sort of motivation is counterproductive. People should not change for the sake of change. It should a process of evolving into a better version of themselves.
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We need to explore who we are and use all the gifts we are given…and we all have them, if we are allowed to find them.
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Absolutely right.
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An ordinary life well lived 💜
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❤
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Ohmygod. I think there is a common thread out there, for those of us who are attuned.
I recently expressed extreme frustration to my dear friend Linda. I felt so guided when we made this major move. I felt as though after 15 years on Hawaii Island, I was finally coming home, rejoining the human race. Perhaps there was a purpose to it, Is a purpose to it, and that would be revealed. Largely due to Covid however, it appears that answer is not forthcoming. I have felt so much frustration. What am i DOING with my life?!
What she said to me was, ‘perhaps what you were meant to do is just be yourself. Isn’t that enough?’
I wanted to scream, ‘NO! It is NOT!’
And yet here we are.
I think we are conditioned, especially in the west, to aspire. It is something I keep trying to write about, as constant aspiration (and toward what end?) is, in a word, unsustainable. And we badly need new and sustainable models of Being.
And so i am working on it. Funny wording, considering… but there you have it. ❤️
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Even our words conspire to keep us ‘doing’ when ‘being’ should be enough for any of us. We aspire when we ould simply ‘be’, we work towards goals… we know we are already ‘there’, but keep trying to finish the journey….
We need a new vocabulary 🙂 ❤
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We do!
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🙂
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