“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

As far as I am concerned ordinary is pretty much the same thing as being normal – and normal isn’t all its cracked up to be! Consider, in Nazi Germany it was considered “normal” to hate Jews. This was considered “normal” because that is what “ordinary” people were doing.

Lately I’ve come to realize that normal is the opposite of many things. For example, the “normal” American household has an average of over $8,000 in credit card debt alone! So being normal (ordinary) means you are in debt! The average American will consume somewhere between ten and twenty pounds of sugar this year from carbonated beverages (Coke, Pepsi, etc) alone! Being ordinary (normal) means you aren’t really drinking in a healthy way. I’ll bet those same people aren’t eating healthy either! So being ordinary means you are probably overweight, fat, or well on your way to being that way because of what you are putting into your body.

As for me, I have decided that normal is not only boring, its wrong. At the risk of forcing my personal beliefs on you, let me say that I don’t really think God put any of us on this earth just so we could be normal, ordinary, or (even worse) “just like everybody else.” Sorry, I don’t buy into that. I like being considered unusual. I like being around people who are a little unusual. They certainly are a lot more fun! I could easily entertain you for hours with stories of my friends who are anything but ordinary.

Being around these people stimulates my own sense of uniqueness (if there is such a word). When I was in college I learned about how sometimes you have to “think outside the box.” I always thought that was stupid. Then I went into the working world and had opportunity after opportunity to attend seminars and meetings where I could be taught and encouraged to “think outside the box.” I’m proud to say I’ve never attended any of them.

I noticed my dad never really thought “inside the box.” I was talking to him about this a while back and asked him why that was. I loved his reply, “I never had time to build the box.”

To me thinking “inside the box” is just a very subtle and polite way of saying, “I’ve been so brainwashed by society that I can’t even think like an individual any longer.” The problem with most, if not all, brainwashing is that when brains get washed they tend to shrink!

I have a new hobby now and that is observing ordinary, normal people. Its fascinating, frustrating, and occasionally depressing. But for me its mostly very motivating almost to the point of being inspiring. Allow me to share with you some of what I have learned about ordinary or normal people:

• They get their financial advice from people who have the same or more financial problems than they do.
• They get diet advice from people who have tried all the fad diets and are still overweight.
• They get relationship advice from people who can’t talk to their kids without screaming at them and/or have failed or failing marriages.
• They get medical “advice” from people who are out-of-shape, smoke, and drink too much.

I guess compared to the ordinary person I do some pretty unusual things. Some times it is a bit risky. But it is almost always a lot of fun!

For what its worth, don’t allow yourself to be stuck with the ordinary. Go out today and march to the beat of your own drummer and risk the unusual!