Ask Lewis: Tips for Transcending What Seems Normal

The extraordinary thinker needs to transcend any concept of “Normal”.

‘Normal’ is a highly relative term. What may be considered normal in your country/community might not be in some other. Being normal is nothing but being the way your surroundings require you to be, behaving in a way that’s accepted & blending in with everyone else.

I like to use the analogy of a chameleon to describe a normal person. A chameleon keeps switching its color to blend in with its environment. It camouflages itself on trees, sand, rock, etc., thus deceiving the predator’s eyes. Not only is this ability used to trick their predators, but it’s also used to keep themselves warm during the night (by turning black) and cool during the day (by turning a light shade of grey).

So basically being normal is adapting to the surroundings you’re in to appear socially intelligent.

What’s not normal? Imagine wearing your bathrobes to work. Or, imagine doing break dancing in a yoga class. Not that you cannot do those things, but doing so would not seem normal.

Whenever you refuse to change color, whenever you decline to adjust, whenever you stand out, people are going to tag you with all sorts of names except normal. Bizarre, strange, eccentric, or even mentally ill.

Why? Because:

1. They’re jealous of your courage.

2. Their life is tragically boring so they’re interested in what you are up to.

3. They need something to gossip about

4. Maybe you really are wrong and need help. (Very rare)

Whatever the situation is, just be yourself. Don’t let society’s definition of what’s “normal” restrict your growth or narrow your thoughts.

It’s ironic how we’re all unique when unique is used to describe just the one thing that stands out. So being different is normal too. :)

So, I ask again. What does it mean to be normal? What seems normal to the individual who does not think about who they are, and where they are? It does not feel normal to the individual who is driven on every level of their being to ask this question.

There is a very thin line between normal, ordinary, and extraordinary; between a day-dreamer or visionary; sanity and insanity, genius and delusion. The extraordinary person is anything but normal. This person exists in a floating, ever-changing reality. Some individuals have a hunger even in the most ordinary of situations to connect with “extraordinary” people. How does one transcend “normal?” Before having full awareness, an extraordinary individual may accept an ordinary life but intuitively will feel out of place.

The Takeaway

If you are extraordinary, you are likely to feel that there is something unbalanced in what most others accept as normal. The more aware you become, the more you may find yourself suffering physically, mentally, and emotionally until you can have that understanding of what it means to be extraordinary. In this process, you can’t seize the extraordinary. You must embrace it. One does not own this state but rather communes with it.

©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.

Here are other of my stories in a similar vein:

Before you go…

I am Lewis Harrison, an award-winning author of over twenty books on personal growth and strategic thinking. For over a decade I was the producer and host of the show “What’s Up” on NPR-affiliated WIOX FM in New York.

Now, aside from writing on Medium, and connecting personally with my readers, I teach seminars and speak on personal development, and life strategies throughout the world.

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Lewis Harrison

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