When you think of an extraordinary person, who comes to mind?
Possibly a historical figure, someone significant enough to warrant their own biography, or maybe even a family member.
But take a moment to think of the average coworker. Consider what’s normal in your daily interactions and how most people behave on your daily commute or at the restaurants and shops you frequent.
What would it take to be extraordinary in those environments? Not much, right? (Sad, maybe. But true nonetheless.)
It doesn’t take much to behave in extraordinary ways. I share the following story only to illustrate the point.
At the grocery store the other day, I took a minute to wrangle and stack the jumbled carts in the parking lot cart corral. A young man who works for the store spotted me and said, “Hey, MAD respect! Thanks a lot!”
Mad respect?! For taking thirty seconds of my day to arrange some buggies? He didn’t thank me because I’d made his whole day but because I made it slightly easier—something, I’m guessing, doesn’t happen every often.
Today, when you choose to make eye contact with another person, when you ask someone how they’re doing and stay around long enough to actually find out, when you pause as everyone around you just keeps passing through, you are being extraordinary.
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