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Have an Ordinary Day!
By Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D. | February 17, 2008
People frequently wish us an extraordinary day. What does that say about an ordinary day?
In our haste to attain exceptional success, fantastic relationships and exorbitant amounts of money, many of us miss out on the beauty of an ordinary day. This is what Michael Neill shared in an article where he explores why a friend and mentor said to him “Have an average day!” Michael was surprised by this until his friend explained what was behind it.
He learns that after studying suicide notes a university researcher decided that the enemy of happiness is “the curse of exceptionality.” You see, if we were all exceptional then being exceptional would become commonplace. In this case everyone would fail since exceptional means standing out from the rest.
And, as anyone who has excelled knows, being exceptional can bring on feelings of isolation and estrangement. Or, on the other side, believing you can never attain greatness can make you believe your life is worthless and without meaning.
Neill ends his article with these final words about an ordinary day
the meaning of our lives comes from the differences we make with them, though these differences need not be huge to have a profound impact - we may well have the ultimate prescription for a happy, productive life: Be an average, happy person making a small positive difference (and having a happy, average day). In doing this, you create a kind of exceptionality that everyone can share.
Topics: Claiming your joy, Life choices, Living life, Source of happiness, lifting your mood |