Today's Meditation:

"Out of the ordinary."  These are beautiful words, though rather frightening for most people.  When we do anything out of the ordinary, we will face obstacles and hurdles that we haven't yet encountered in our "ordinary" lives.  It's the fear of these obstacles, I believe, that keeps many people from doing different things with their lives, from reaching out and exploring different avenues that might take them to extraordinary destinations that they cannot even imagine while being, having, and doing the ordinary.

Facing these risks takes a great leap of faith--faith that life and God will not let you fall so far that you'll never be able to get back up again.  It takes faith in yourself--in your resilience and your own ability to deal with adversity in clothes in which you've never seen adversity dressed before.  It takes faith in the idea that while you're going after what you want in life, you'll be able to stay focused on the important things in life and keep your life balanced.

As Brian says, any attempt to move out of the ordinary takes a decision, and many of the thoughts that go into that decision-making process are thoughts of fear.  Fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of ridicule, fear of losing things that mean much to you.  But thoughts of fear are simply that--thoughts.  Most of our fears never come true, and when we train ourselves to focus on positive potential outcomes rather than on potential negative outcomes, we give ourselves at least a chance to do something different that just may be life-changing.

Many people take risks and then back off as soon as they hit the first speed bump.  Have faith that past that speed bump and behind that tall wall is some smooth sailing as you learn more about what's out of the ordinary for most of the people in this world.

Questions to consider:

What is the ordinary for you?  Is it comfortable?

What would you really like to do that's "out of the ordinary"?  Why don't you do it?  What things keep you from trying?

Why is perseverance so important in accomplishing something?

For further thought:

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare;
it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

Seneca

Today's quotation:

Your decision to be, have and do something
out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties
that are out of the ordinary as well.  Sometimes
your greatest asset is simply your ability
to stay with it longer than anyone else.

Brian Tracy

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