Knock..., knock..., knock...
"What is that?"
The knocking of the door.
"What do you do when someone knocks on your door?"
You open the door.
I am asking you to open the door of your hearts and let me tell you about being extraordinary.
In our jobs, the organisation or company we work for is like a picture in a jigsaw puzzle. Each of us represent a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Imagine if the picture is of a mansion situated near a lake, and the driveway is bordered by a garden of beautiful flowers, with butterflies and bees flitting around. The sky is blue with soft white clouds and birds can be seen flying by.
Each of us in the finance department would be pieces of the lake, or those of us in administration would be pieces of the walls of the mansion. Now, how could the bunch of us who are pieces of the blue sky be extraordinary?
If all our job requires of us is to type out reports for our managers day in and day out, I, for one, am going to make sure that the reports I churn out are the best looking ones, put into folders, marked neatly where my manager is supposed to sign and maybe once in a while, I'd get it ready earlier than on time, all ready on the desk of my manager.
That is what being extraordinary is about.
Even each puzzle piece that represents the sky, if you look carefully enough, is different. One of the "sky pieces" may be a little bit bluer, or another may have a tinge of white clouds, and another could have a bird in it. What I am trying to say is that, even when there is a bunch of us working in the same department, doing the same job, it is up to each and every one of us to do it extraordinarily. To put that special brand of "Me" into the job.
That is what extraordinary means.
To be ordinary is to do the work we are supposed to do like everybody else. By all means, do it, but add that "extra", that special brand of ourselves into the job.
Did you know that Antonio Stradivari did the ordinary job of making violins using primitive tools until he died at the age of 93? Today, "Stradivari" violins are priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars each. He is what you would call, being extraordinary.
I'd like to quote from Denis Waitley, "The Champion Within".
"A job is something you do for money. A career is something you do because you have an inner calling to do it. You want to do it, you love doing it. You're excited when you do it. And you'd do it even if you were paid nothing beyond food and the basics. You'd do it because it's your life."
And so therefore, I say to you. I say to myself. "Let us be extraordinary." Do the ordinary, but add in the "extra", that unique brand of you. "Be Extraordinary."
