You Can Build an Extraordinary Life
An extraordinary life is something beyond merely ordinary.
What is ordinary? The ordinary human being leads a mostly programmed life. We start with a brain that comes partially programmed. For example, we know that mice can inherit fear. We have no reason to doubt that humans also inherit responses from our ancestors. We probably have some basic programming.
Our experience creates more programming. We learn from parents, teachers, advertising, all the experiences of life. We often allow the programming to control our lives. Let me give you an example.
I was up early on a winter day. It was dark outside, and I had a light on. My wife came out and opened the blinds. I became upset. I don’t remember what I said. I know it was something stupid, but my wife either didn’t hear it or didn’t react. About thirty minutes later, I got on a bus to go to work. As I sat down, I realized I was still upset with my wife.
Does something like that ever happen to you? I think it happens to all of us. These little upsets can lead to divorce, loss of friendships, and businesses breakups. The next step is to think of the reasons why we are right – confirmation bias. We’ll come up with what we will say the next time we see that person that upset us. We want to make sure that person doesn’t upset us again. That person needs to behave. That is an ordinary experience.
When I sat down on the bus and realized I was upset, I questioned my feelings. Why am I upset? I instantly remembered standing in the living room of our home when I was about five years old. My mother taught me to close the blinds and said, “We close the blinds at night, so people don’t see in when we turn on the light.” That was my brain program put in place by my mother. I was upset because my wife wasn’t following my mother’s program. Who cares if people see? The silliness of my thinking made me smile. The next morning, I opened the blinds before my wife came out of the bedroom. That is a simple act of being extraordinary.
I stopped and questioned my thinking. I went from being upset to smiling. That seems like a small thing doesn’t it. Yet, that changed my day. It changed my life. That change may have affected every patient I saw that day. I was no longer upset. I was happy. It may have saved my marriage.
You can make little changes like that and have an extraordinary life. Practice getting control of your thinking. Meditate and hold an image in your mind. You will probably find that you don’t have much control. Keep practicing. As you gain control, use your abilities throughout the day. Watch your thoughts and emotions. Stop confirmation bias by questioning what you are doing. Why are you upset? You can stop and change course.
Little changes build to an extraordinary life.