Rediscovering the power of being human.

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There seem to be two kinds of extraordinary people in modern society. One is the kind that is admired, idolized and followed by many people. Entire cults of personality develop around them. The other kind is judged and thrown to the fringes as freaks that should not show themselves in the face of the "public".

Yet both are extraordinary and both carry within extraordinary potential for personal success. The reason why some of them are thrown on the fringes is probably because they make the ordinary ones too uncomfortable with their mediocrity. In other words, the reason why anyone extraordinary is despised by the masses is not so much that they are extraordinary in some "wrong" manner, but rather because so many people are so afraid to become anything more than ordinary.

And they are afraid precisely because some extraordinary people seem so cast away and unpopular, even lonely. This points to a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. They look at those unpopular people and fear of having the same fate yet they're the ones who made them unpopular to begin with. What perpetuates this dynamic is a kind of a stand off.

The only way to resolve this is for either everyone to suddenly become tolerant and even encouraging of people who are extraordinary in extraordinary and unpopular ways or for individuals to recognize this stand off and opt to be among the first to take the plunge hoping that more and more people will follow suit until a time comes when being "ordinary" is frowned upon more than being extraordinary in an unpopular way.

I think it's safe to say it's unrealistic to expect everyone to suddenly stop conforming and take this plunge so we're left with the second option. That second option does however require guts, which brings us to the first and probably most important answer to the question of how to be extraordinary: Dare.

Dare to be yourself even if it might mean that you will be frowned upon by many people. Dare to go back to your roots and cast away the habits you developed solely to "fit in" even though they don't quite suit who you truly may be deep down. And don't deny that you haven't develop such habits. Most of us, in a society such as it is, have. Some of us probably aren't even aware. If you want some hints ask yourself if you're ever pretending to feel what you don't feel just to avoid conflicts? Have you ever pretended to be something you're not? Is your day job even close to what you might truly love to do? If not, don't feel bad, but instead ask yourself if you've ever took any kind of initiative towards rectifying that in the future?

I think everybody is born extraordinary and to some extent everyone already is quite unique. But we lose a lot of that along the way in our attempt to fit in to a society that is so judging and moralizing and even willing to use force to compel conformity. There's nothing wrong with fitting in by itself, but there is something wrong with a society which accomplishes this conformity through fear, manipulation, guilt tripping and force.

Fitting in wasn't supposed to be about bruising your own persona, cutting out parts of your own self in order to fit in. Instead it is supposed to be about finding a place where you such as you are, with no significant compromise, can fit in. We seem to forget that all too often as we seek to keep relationships and circles which we know deep down just do not work!

Think about your past. What were your hobbies. What did you enjoy doing most. What did you feel guilty about doing yet couldn't stop (you may have been wrongly guilt tripped out of it). What forbidden things felt like forbidding you to be who you are? Try to see if you can rediscover yourself, parts of you which you might have lost along the way and that you might have forgotten. Rediscover what you truly love to do and what you would truly want to be more than anything else if the opinions and prohibitions of other people didn't matter at all.

It doesn't matter what you look like or how much money you have or which country you live in and what education you had (believe me this matters the least). These things are probably less than half of what matters. What matters most is what ultimately energizes all of these extraneous things into action: you, your personality, your spirit, your passions, your ambition, your vision, your philosophy.

Imagine two twins who've had the same education, live in the same country and have pretty much the same amount of money. Imagine that one of them was constantly worried about what other thought of him, cynical about his own chances of any kind of success, complaining about his job yet believing that there is no way out and believing that other people and some God is punishing him for reasons unknown to him.

Grim picture isn't it? Now imagine his brother as confident about what he is, ambitious, optimistic and passionate. He has a vision he wants to work towards. He has interests that he can't stop thinking and talking about and doesn't care if anyone shares them. He's in "the zone" when you enter such subjects with him, glowing with excitement and brewing with ideas.

I think it would be clear that the fact that they have the same extraneous opportunities doesn't mean all that much. They are still as different to each other as the night and day and you would feel that difference quite vividly. They would leave distinctively different marks on you. The positive brother would probably even seem like looking better than his defeatist counterpart.

As an encouragement, consider what George Celente says about avoiding economic hardship in these times of crisis, that uniqueness is key. This shouldn't be surprising at all. What always has the most value is that which is rare and different, not that which is abundant and ordinary. Extraordinary people have extraordinary amounts of value to provide and thus have the potential for extraordinary success. Everything is on a whole new level.

What do you think? Do you believe you could be more extraordinary than you are? Can you think of any answers to above questions? What do you think are the best ways to achieve extraordinariness?

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