By extraordinary, I mean something wild and illogical enough to be exciting. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be probable enough to awaken and stimulate your brain cells to new heights.
The idea here is to step outside whatever you or someone else has assumed you would do. It would take advantage of your personality and talents, and activate your ability to go where you’ve never gone before. In making that happen, you would add spice to your life, and open new opportunities you never dreamed existed.
Sure, it would test your courage and your ability to innovate, to figuratively catch any ball thrown to you. Doing it, however, would get you out of the rut or routine in which you might find yourself. There are no limits. To put this strategy into play, you can be anywhere, be any age, or have any kind of work experience. Your adventure will likely touch everything you know or have done.
There’s no way I or anyone else can suggest what you might do with whatever you have to work with. That’s for you to decide and you have total control.
To help you get started, I’m about to unfold the reasoning that applies to me. Use my example to take inventory of what you have going for you. As I get specific with my example, make the plunge and get specific with what will be your own idea. With that, here goes.
Among my qualifications, I had a rural Midwest upbringing but have lived in the Deep South for several years. I’m a military veteran, a college graduate, and have been a writer and photographer all my life. As a result, I’ve met all kinds of people ranging from wealthy to poor and living under a wide range of conditions. Those dual professions plus my love of travel have taken me to almost every part of the U.S., around the world twice, and to twenty-one foreign countries. In short, I’ve endured a lot and learned a lot.
So, the question I asked myself was: How could I use those credentials to do something extraordinary, really off the wall? Several ideas floated through my brain, but the one that hooked into my imagination was that of going to an area in which there is a concentration of the so-called “rich and famous.” I would make an acquaintance with someone there so as to be “officially” recognized, then make myself available as a professional conversationist to lend an outside flavor during parties and other special events.
I wish I could tell you I screwed up enough courage to make that happen, but I can’t because another idea came along that was so strong it took me in another direction for nearly fifteen years. With that success behind me, I could shake myself out and still follow through. Age, however, would make it even more of a stretch.
Now you likely understand why I wanted you to think about yourself as I briefly described myself. To repeat, what could you try to make happen with your own backlog of experiences? Everything is eligible. Like I know a truck driver whose tales would have you lusting to hear more.
Whatever you do, never downplay or diminish what you have done or are doing with your life. You are surrounded with possibilities such as making appearances at local civic clubs, demonstrating a skill you’ve perfected over the years, being a speaker in an educational or health facility, or being an aide or tutor for an organization in the role of helping people.
Don’t hold back. Turn loose what you imagine, then grab it by the tail and hang on while it takes you wherever it wants to go. To repeat the even more important, never forget that no matter what kind of life you have lived or are living, nobody else in this whole wide world has done it exactly as you have. One of the hardest claims for anyone to make is that they are truly unique, but it’s a claim that’s true.
Indeed, to be willing to tell or show others what you’ve learned is one of the greatest favors you can ever do for yourself. As someone once said, the height of selfishness is to not share what you’ve learned. Also, you don’t know nor will you ever know how it could affect the lives of other people—even if it’s nothing more than rescuing them from a dead-end routine.
Remember this: It’s not at all unreasonable to think of your ordinary as being extraordinary to someone else.
