What does it take to make a person extraordinary?
It is human nature to want to be important. We all fantasize about it: waking up from a
mundane life to find the fate of the world rests on your shoulders,
figuratively or literally. Just so long
as you are imperative.
So what does it mean to be important anyway? It means being so essential to a person,
idea, society, etc. that our presence or influence are absolutely
indispensable. We’ve all seen it on TV
or read about it in books. Occasionally
we even learn of a real-life example. It
is a fantasy simply because it is so unlikely.
And we know that. We dream of it,
we don’t actually expect it to come true.
But what if it could? What if one day we did find that we held the
weight of a world in our hands? Maybe
not because we are front line in a revolution or think up the next groundbreaking
discovery. But because of the
taken-for-granted things we do and the lives we touch around us. Maybe those lives won’t depend on you to
continue its existence. But our
influence in the world is often much greater than we ever give it credit
for. After all, we’ve all seen movies
such as It’s a Wonderful Life where the
character is able to witness firsthand what the world would have been like if he
had not existed. But in the dull moment of
a normal life it is hard to imagine that our small actions play such a big
role. We easily become discouraged or
lose sight of the influence we do have.
It can be very defeating.
So what does it take to make a person extraordinary? That’s the most amazing part. The answer is absolutely nothing. After all, every hero that I know of in an
adventure story has made their mark by simply embracing themselves. Sometimes they may discover new talents or
strengths they didn’t know they possessed.
But they don’t make become special by being something different. In fact, usually what sets them apart is counterintuitively
being themselves. They discover that they
were special all along.
It may seem cliché to be told yet again that you
must learn to be yourself. I can see you
now rolling your eyes and changing the channel in your mind to something much
more exciting. But why? Why is it so hard to believe that the ordinary
person reading this contains a power in their very being that has the potential
to do wonders if they (YOU) would just accept yourself for who and what you
are. Uncover your true potential.
Not to get preachy, but we are all children of
God. And to be a child of the divine is
to have divinity in every fiber of your being.
If God can move mountains and command the dead to rise, can you imagine
what you can do as an offspring of God?
Imagine the impact you could have on everything you touch and choose to
do. It is unlikely for most us that we
will lead nations or command armies. It
is unlikely that we will even become heroes in our own towns. Honestly, the magic that we make will most
often go unnoticed and unappreciated.
But that doesn’t make it any less important. That’s what we have to remember. It’s not about the recognition (although we
appreciate it when it comes along). It’s
about the results. And those results are
there. You just have to learn to look.
So, how are you, by virtue of being the person
that you are, going to change the world today?
