One of the things I love most about coaching is that I’m constantly learning from the people I have the privilege of working with.
This week it came from my client Kris.
Kris recently completed a PhD in Chemistry at Harvard and has just started a new role developing spectrometers. The science is way beyond my understanding, but that’s never been what our conversations are about.
For the past six months we’ve been exploring what it means to live from who he already is, rather than from who his self-judgements tell him he needs to be.
Recently Kris also attended the Landmark Forum and has continued his journey through one of Landmark’s seminar series.
During our conversation this week Kris shared an idea he’d come across at Landmark.
Ordinary versus extraordinary
I asked him what those words meant to him.
His answer caught my attention.
For Kris, ordinary wasn’t about having an ordinary job or an ordinary life.
It was what happens when fear gets the final say.
When fear convinces us not to take the next step.
Not to speak up.
Not to try.
Not to risk failing.
Not to risk how we might look.
Extraordinary wasn’t about being exceptional.
It wasn’t about fame, status or achievement.
It was about staying on the path.
Continuing to take the next step.
Seeing.
Learning.
Acting.
Growing.
Not because we need to prove anything.
But because we’re no longer letting fear decide who we become.
My conversation with Kris has stayed with me.
Not because of what he said.
Because of the way he’s living it.
He’s doing the work.
Staying on the path.
Taking the next step.
Again and again.
And I’m reminded that mastery isn’t something we arrive at.
It’s something we practise.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking that mastery is about results.
About becoming the best.
Having the biggest business.
Knowing the most.
Achieving more.
I’m seeing that’s not mastery at all.
Mastery is staying on the path.
Especially on the days when fear whispers that it’s time to stop.
Ironically, when we stop letting fear run our lives, the results often become extraordinary.
Not because we chased extraordinary.
Because we stayed on the path long enough to discover what was possible.
Maybe that’s why living an extraordinary life is much closer than we think.
Not because extraordinary people are different from the rest of us.
But because they simply become less willing to let fear decide how they live.
Much love
Peter