I’ve always had this theory: There are no such things as extraordinary people, just ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Something that has always helped keep my humility in check are the conversations with people who make my eyebrows perk up and my lips mouth a silent “WOW” as they tell me about their life.

Several times I’ve had people praise me as “amazing” or “incredible”. To be honest, I consider myself pretty ordinary and nothing special compared to anyone else. I don’t really think people by themselves define or attain a status of “extraordinary”. I believe that the things we do define who we are, and that those things are what can appropriately be labeled extraordinary.

One of my favorite quotes is an African proverb that has beep popularized over the past few years:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

While this quote puts a tremendous emphasis on competition, I think it is valid in capturing the message that what you do and how you do it is more important than who you are.

To paraphrase another popular saying, I believe that there is always someone “bigger” or “better”. No matter how smart, talented, or capable you are, there will always be someone just as good (if not better) who is working just has hard (if not harder). While you may never meet them, you know that they’re out there. For those people that have asked me what motivates me: it’s knowing that there are people like this out there.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m careful not to have my primary motivation be extrinsic by trying to compete or be better than them. Rather, I channel intrinsic motivation with the realization that I am not the only one. The fact that someone else is as good as me and works just as hard gives me enough drive to stay determined.

Unfortunately, the way society functions is to force us into competing as opposed to collaborating. In an ideal society, we wouldn’t need rankings or comparisons. I think competition is great and has done some pretty incredible stuff for our world, but no matter how hard we try I know that competition will have a cost. So many things seem to be a zero sum game- you win and I lose, or I win and you lose.

Back to my original topic. One of my favorite activities is finding and meeting people who do extraordinary things each and every day. On the surface during your first impression of them, you don’t think much. In a split second, your mind does a quick scan and instantly comes up with a analysis based on stereotypes and previous experience. But when you set stereotypes and first impressions aside to talk with your ears and listen with your heart, you become immersed in their life story. My quest to find people with truly inspirational and incredible lives drives me to meet and get to know as many people as possible.

My curiosity is driven by my encounters with these people. One of the reasons I pursue such diverse and multi-faceted interests is so I can keep up conversation when fate aligns my life on a collision course with their lives. I want to have questions ready to ask and at least a foundational knowledge to be able to understand. I know that there is a tremendous amount of these people out there. In fact, I probably walk past many of them each day.

If I could only have the chance to hear the story of everyone I see on the bus, in class, on the bike trails, swimming in the pool, studying in the library, and more would I be satisfied. I know that there are many people doing extraordinary things- many of them probably don’t even realize it because the only world they know is a world where the extraordinary is “ordinary”.

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In a way, aren’t we all doing extraordinary things each and every day?

I think it comes down to a matter of perception and how you view yourself.

In our head churns a system more complex and more intelligent than any modern computer around. Our cognition, perceptive abilities, subconscious mind, and so much more are already extraordinary achievements in and of themselves.

»Forward Motion Takeaway: Everyone is ordinary. But the things we do can be extraordinary. Make the mindset to pursue and achieve the extraordinary a daily habit.