Let's Give Ourselves Permission To Be Ordinary

We don't always have to be striving

Photo by Ali Kazal on Unsplash

The image above is the antithesis of my whole piece here. I’m adding it to make a point. This is exactly what I am saying at the start of this piece - even on something innocuous like a mug, we’re being pressured to NOT be ordinary!

We shouldn't try to escape the ordinary. Instead, we should try to embrace it! So let’s get into it.

Maybe this is just me (I doubt it)… but do you ever feel like the world, society at large, is pressuring you?

Pressuring you to be bigger, better, faster, stronger. To be thinner, happier, healthier. To be anything but ordinary?

To be more, to make more, to accomplish more.

It’s a pervasive feeling, isn’t it? Probably thanks to social media, more than anything. Because we compare ourselves to others, don’t we. Even if we say we aren’t, or don’t, subconsciously we still do. It’s our nature to do so.

We see our friends posting on Instagram, on Facebook, on Bluesky on Twitter about getting degrees, running marathons, climbing mountains (literally), traveling the world. Or people we admire getting michelin stars, winning awards and medals, doing all these big, amazing, inspiring things.

And it makes us feel like we should be doing all these big, amazing, inspiring things too, doesn’t it? And if we aren’t, that makes us some sort of failure.

But what if it’s okay to just be…ordinary. To not need to strive and push and reach and be bigger better versions of ourselves? What if we can find some acceptance and contentment that we are enough, we are okay, just the way we are.

What if it’s okay to live an ordinary life? To not have climbed to Everest Base Camp, to not have run an ultra marathon (that’s anything longer than a marathon 26.6 miles/42km), to not have created some new product or new recipe that has got you millions of followers on social media or your own TV show or book deal.

Let’s learn to be okay with our ordinariness and not have to be anything more than what we are - we don’t need to be super-human. We don’t need to put all these pressures on ourselves.

Even extra pressure like in spaces and on platforms like here - with our writing.

Can it be okay to just write without any grand goals or huge expectations?

Of course, it’s okay to have those things, but at the same time, having those expectations, that sort of invisible weight on your shoulders that you might not even realize is there, that you’re putting on yourself…

Well, it doesn’t have to be there, does it? We can just be here, and do what we enjoy - write. And see what happens - without the striving, the pushing, the late nights and the added stress we might put on ourselves to write the perfect piece.

So can we give ourselves permission to just be 100% ordinary?

Can we get up in the morning and get ourselves and our families ready for work, school and any other responsibilities?

Can we go grocery shopping and get the essentials that we need?

Can we sit and watch TV to unwind and relax?

Can we go walk our dogs or play with our kids in parks?

Can we just live our normal, mundane, everyday lives and be okay with that?

That can just be enough.

And that’s okay.

That doesn’t mean we’re living our lives wrong or that we’ve failed in some way.

This is what life is. Life is made of ordinary moments strung together…and when we look back at those strings of ordinary moments, that’s when they become something more, something magical, something important.

We all sleep, we all eat, we all go to the bathroom. We’re all ordinary human beings. No matter our status, our income, our birthplace.

Yes, of course we can do extraordinary things.

We can have dreams and goals and things we want to accomplish.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t, not at all. Having dreams and goals and things we want to work toward in life is also part of life - and an important part.

But the point I’m making here is that it doesn’t need to be the most important part - or the only thing that we should be doing. It doesn’t need to define us or be the constant.

Because always striving, pushing, wanting to move forward …that can get exhausting.

So can we be okay with just being ordinary? Because ordinary is beautiful too, and it can be easy to forget that.

Oh, and don't forget to live with a Dose of Wonder! ✨️

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