Your Ordinary Life Isn’t the Problem. The Culture Is.

How to turn your ordinary life into an extraordinary one.

Do you know the feeling of not being enough?

Silly me. I bet you do.

After all, we live in a world that does not teach us how to love ourselves.

If anything, it glamorizes chasing after more likes, creating the best content to impress others. And it comes with a price — we lose the value of who we are.

Feeling like you are not enough is good for business.

You crave more. You buy more.

The more admiration we seek, the easier it is to manipulate us into buying stuff we don’t need.

Social media used to make me feel less.

Less interesting. Less captivating. Like my life lacked colours. Like I had not enough money to pursue my dreams.

We subscribed to a belief that life has to look a certain way to enjoy it.

You will impress others as long as you reach the upper echelons of the social ladder.

You will feel happy once you gather people around who adore and respect you.

The hamster wheel of never-ending improvement spins and takes you along for the hellish ride.

Simplicity can be epic.

Recently, I reactivated my Instagram account. I shared my travels and obsession with fine dining. I shared my writing.

When I returned from my travels, I caught myself thinking: I am running out of content to share. I felt ashamed of my ordinary life. What if people consider it boring?

Right away, I felt ashamed of my thoughts.

First of all, since when do I give a damn how others evaluate my life?

Secondly, I adore my ordinary life. And the ordinary does not stand for boring.

My ordinary life doesn’t suck.

The culture that wants me to feel guilty about my pace of life sucks.

Stars Hollow’s idyllic atmosphere is more alluring to me than Elon Musk’s hustle and dazzle.

Since I am in love with my life, I might as well share my passion for it.

I came to love my boring life. I have discovered that it tastes better when in slow motion.

My ordinary life doesn’t suck.

The culture that wants me to feel guilty about my pace of life sucks.

My ordinary life doesn’t consist of driving the best car in town. My ordinary life hates commuting to work and performing small talk in the office.

My ordinary life consists of long walks in the sunset.

My ordinary life adores a morning coffee with a view from my porch.

My ordinary life feels wholesome when making tomato sauce for my pasta with vegetables and herbs from my garden.

Boring life can be exciting as long as you make an effort to perceive it that way. Instead of feeling guilty for having time in the morning, I feel blessed.

I get to wake up early, meditate, and listen to the silence of the world wrapped up in sleep.

I get to walk barefoot through the summer garden shrouded in mist.

I have mastered making little things extraordinary.

Today, my Instagram is full of mundane content. The sunrise. The shadow under the trees in the summer afternoon. The rays of sunshine on my morning coffee cup.

When you no longer chase, you discover that the present moment has always been enough.

It is how simple things amount to extraordinary moments.

A quiet life is a masterpiece.

We try so hard to avoid being labelled as ordinary that we use every muscle to show off, shock and shake up the audience.

But in today’s chaotic world, doesn’t noise make us one of many?

Silence seems to be a gem these days.

To lead an exceptional life means to nourish your soul.

If you refuse to follow what feels good to you, you will starve. Your creativity will fall flat. You will lose the zest for life.

The chase after the next high causes us to focus on things we lack. The obsession over things we don’t have makes us ignore the riches we do have.

The ability to enjoy your life is not conditioned upon external events or achievements. A happy life lies in your perception and commitment to the present moment.

It is not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

— Henry David Thoreau

What do you see when you greet the day with the sunrise?

How present can you be when playing with your kids?

Ordinary life is not a complacent one.

You don’t have to forsake your goals to be content with what you already have.

The feeling of having enough means not being controlled by compulsive cravings but fuelled by desires that organically stem from simple existence.

Everything beyond what you have is an addition to your already fabulous, ordinary life.

While everyone is chasing, you are content.

There will always be more to accomplish. It is your responsibility to prioritize what matters to you.

Curb your appetite for giving in to distractions or following the herd while dialling up the purring of your soul.

A simple life is not about adding more to your plate but making space for things that matter. Those things become your internal nourishment.

Embrace solitude.

Being comfortable alone or in silence makes you invincible.

When you are no longer conditioned by people, or external events to make you feel whole and complete, you are not at the mercy of things outside your control.

Letting go of the noise and manipulative nature of the world, paradoxically, puts you in the driver’s seat of your emotions.

Solitude empowers you with the vitality to pursue goals and ambitions without compromising who you are.

Simplify your life.

You think you will be more relaxed when you have more time.

You don’t need more time. You need more space.

Give up habits, people, and commitments that do not rock your boat forward.

Eliminate pointless habits from your routine:

• Scrolling through every social media feed.
• Eating food that makes you feel crappy.
• Reading every email newsletter that comes your way.
• Phone calls that drain your energy.
• Relationships that have long ago expired.

When you de-clutter your mind, you will thrive on simple life.

Ordinary life does not stand for boring.

Boring life exists only if you choose to see it that way.

When you are alive with curiosity, from head to toe, boredom doesn’t stick. It is not a part of your life.

You are the most powerful when living an authentic life.

You infuse your days with passion and look for the extraordinary in the ordinary. To look for is an activity in itself.

The richness of your inner life will infiltrate your outward explorations.

The sun after the rain amazes you. The first taste of the strawberry is a poem. Silent Sunday morning is your fuel.

Nothing in your life is commonplace. You are surrounded by the Divine as you are the Divine.

To live is an extraordinary feat in itself. You have been gifted a special place on Earth.

You have been chosen to hike a unique path with highs and lows, with breathtaking views and ones that paralyse you to the core. I cannot see how boring fits into this equation.

You are the most powerful when living an authentic life.

When you are unapologetically you, you are anything but boring. If simple life calls you in, then follow the whisper.

As Butterfield Jones said:

Be who you are, and the world will adjust.

Post what feels authentic to you.

When you look at your profile, does it wholeheartedly scream you, or is it a version of you who struggles to fit in?

Share your vulnerabilities if you believe they will make others feel empowered. Share your victories if they make you feel empowered.

There is nothing wrong with living life with a bang.

Just like celebrating an ordinary and quiet lifestyle is not a crime either.

My dreams and goals in life are as valuable as yours, even if yours are “bigger”.

My quiet life in today’s chaotic world seems pretty extraordinary to me.

Thank you for being here, — Kate