Ordinary versus Extraordinary

Barbara Minerva: “You renounced your wish!”

Wonder Woman aka Diana: “I had to. And so do you. Nothing good is born from lies, Barbara. We’re wasting precious time.”

Barbara: “Even now, patronizing me.”

And Barbara leaps forward to attack Wonder Woman with all her might and anger. In her pursuit to be extraordinary, she turns vicious and full of resentment.

Most of you may have watched the movie Wonder Woman 1984 where an ancient stone is coveted by Max Lord to make everyone’s wish come true.

Barbara Minerva too was a victim of this ancient stone. She was once a highly intelligent and accomplished archaeologist. At her workplace, Barbara was often overlooked and underestimated by her colleagues.

When she met Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince for the first time, she envied her, finding her to be extraordinary. It created a sense of awe, jealousy, and anxiety in her. She wanted to be more like Diana, to be popular, attractive, and amazing. Diana got all the attention in a day from people that Barbara never got in her entire life.

As the movie progresses, Barbara comes across the ancient stone. The stone had an inscription on it that read in Latin – ‘Place upon the object held but one great wish’, which Diana read out to her.

Barbara (later in the movie, holding the ancient wishing stone in her hands): “I do know what I’d wish for. To be like Diana. Strong, sexy, cool. Special.”

Finally, when Barbara became like Diana, the people around noticed her and started to give her the importance she yearned for. But shortly after, the popularity she was gaining was wearing thin as she grew empty and arrogant both at the same time. Her desire for power and recognition led her to betray her colleagues and even turn against Diana.

So many things we wish for, and if we had one wish, which one would it be?

For most people, it’s about progress in various aspects. From becoming wealthy to gaining popularity to never gaining weight no matter what’s on the plate, and so on. All of these wishes that people have most often are narrowed down to become something more than ordinary.

“Anyone can love a rose, but it takes a lot to love a leaf. It’s ordinary to love the beautiful, but it’s beautiful to love the ordinary.”

~Anonymous

The stress of being extraordinary brings in a lot of challenges. In fact, the journey starts from becoming ordinary, and being extraordinary manifests itself the moment you stop trying too hard to become it. When you are ordinary, you are caring, loving, and understanding, and you live in contentment with good relations around you. You are patient, generous, and filled with compassion and enthusiasm.

“The day that you achieve ordinary, you start becoming extraordinary”

~Coach Anish

Barbara wanted to be special like Diana but she forgot that outer appearance or skills were not the only contributing factor to one’s so-called extraordinariness. It is the uniqueness of one’s personality and inner core as an individual that matters.

The world’s competitiveness, society’s high expectations, and even our work life has led us to believe in the extraordinary. So much so that we’ve lost sight of the beauty in the ordinary. We’ve led ourselves to believe that ordinary is no longer good enough if we want the world to notice us. So, we begin our journey toward becoming extraordinary when we haven’t even tried to fulfill the milestone of being ordinary.

Validation is required at every step, making one work harder to achieve impossible feats in life. While some people are good at one thing, others may not be. However, this is not seen as the uniqueness of a person, but rather a weakness. For instance, if one leader is good at figuring solutions through numbers and objective arguments, another might be amazing at visualizing the firm’s future from a much simpler angle.

Today, I am here to tell you that the power of the ordinary is in all of us and it has an impact like no other. It is a leader’s trump card to become a legend.

As a leader, when you wish to become great, it is the little things that matter too. It is not something that you can force into yourself. Extraordinary is something you do not have to become, it is being. Do the ordinary things well and you will build a legacy that is unique to your leadership journey.

Do not force upon yourself the effort of being something that you are not. Be great at what you already are, because being yourself will remove the extra burden of perfection. Extraordinary demands perfection, something that is not always a prerequisite to the way a leader needs to function.

Try not to get in your own way by forcing yourself towards becoming extraordinary. This is something that has to happen naturally in its own time. When you remove the unnecessary weight of achieving 10x and 100x or 1000x in life, saying “I have to be better, I have to be this or that”, you achieve the bliss of the ordinary that itself is the power of a leader.

However, being ordinary allows you to open the door to that secret treasure called being a legend. Do you want to know how the ordinary aspect of leadership can lead to greatness? Connect with me at Krescon Coaches to show you the splendor and beauty in ordinary things.

Just like Francis Duggan sums it up

The Ordinary People

I am quite ordinary myself much of me I do know

But in numbers around me, my type seems to grow

Ordinary people, I meet every day

And in that I mean ordinary in an ordinary way

They live everywhere and they live on your street

Ordinary people are not hard to meet

We even elect them to positions of power

Suppose one person’s weed to another a flower

Our entertainment and sporting celebrities and politicians seem ordinary indeed

Suppose they have in them the will to succeed