Week 6 – Word of the Week: Extraordinary
May 2, 2019 by Chaffee-Thanh Nguyen
Filed under Coaching, Personal Development
This week’s word is Extraordinary. As in I’m in Extraordinary pain! D’oh!
Ah seriously, let’s examine this word and why I’m using it as the word of the week this week.
Ants In Your Pants
Before I do that though, if you’ve been reading along, you may notice that these writings haven’t been 100% motivational, excitement, inspirational, rah, rah, who ha, go, go I’m jumping up out of my pants full of energy kind of writings. I want to mention that for a couple of reasons.
It’s Not A Tumor
First, this isn’t a motivational seminar, so the energy is going to be quite different. You’re not surrounded by 100 or 1000 or more people all jumping up and down with excitement. I believe it’s probably just you reading this and following along my journey – which hopefully is helping you along in your journey.
Keeping It Real
And Secondly, I want to keep it real and honest. I want to tell you what I’m actually going through and experience because if you’re like me, you may be going through the same thing yourself. There’s no hype here, just real, honest to goodness truth. And that includes being in pain. That includes, hurting and opening up to how I’m feeling both physically and mentally – and that’s not always pretty.
I’m not as young as I used to be and my body doesn’t heal as fast. I am no longer able to just go run a marathon and be in pain for a day or two and then be fully recovered. I am no longer able to bench 250, squat 450, and look fantastic with only 4 ½ % body fat. I’m older and my joints hurt, my back hurts, my muscles hurt – and I’m working through it.
The Road To Success
You often hear about overnight success stories. You don’t really hear about the 10 or 20 years it took to become that overnight success. Success isn’t always pretty. Success sometimes comes with stress, worry, mistakes, failures, and pain. Those that persist (Word of the Week 3) and commit (upcoming Word of the Week) and never give up are the ones who succeed.
The road to success is often paved with hardships.
The road to success is often paved with failure.
The road to success is often paved with critics and haters.
The road to success is often paved with ______________. (Fill In Your Own Blank).
AND
The road to success leads to happiness.
The road to success leads to satisfaction.
The road to success leads to enlightment.
The road to success leads to ____________________. (Fill In Your Own Blank).
If you’re willing to keep moving along the road to success, you’ll eventually get there – no matter how pretty or ugly or hard or easy or whatever. Just remember to do what Johnny Appleseed did along the way… plant some seeds. Years later, you’ll look back and see a forest of growth both personal and professional.
With all that said, let’s get back to the word of the week – Extraordinary.
Will You Still Call Me Superman
Are you extraordinary?
Do you know someone extraordinary?
How do you become extraordinary?
What do you have to do in order for people to consider you extraordinary?
What does that word really mean?!?
And why is it the word of the week?!!?!?
Well, to answer those questions, as usual, let’s begin by defining the word.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary.”
It says that it means to be “exceptional to a very marked extent.”
So basically it says that you’ve got to be SUPERMAN or SUPERWOMAN!!!
You’ve got to go PLUS ULTRA!
SUPER SAIYAN!
Or To INFINITY And BEYOND!!!
Seriously, who can live up to those standards?
Who is exceptional to a very marked extent?
Are you?
What did you do to get there?
School Stickers
I remember when I was in the second grade I got a 100% on a quiz and my teacher gave me a sticker that said, “Extraordinary!”
Was it though? Was it really? I mean, the kid next to me got a sticker that said, “Super!” and another one said, “Wonderful!” One even said, “Excellent!” Like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure!
In business and in life, those who are Extraordinary tend to have accomplished great feats, done awesome deeds, or achieved many things. Did it all happen overnight though and it is only reserved for certain people to be extraordinary?
Well, in my opinion, YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY!
Listen, I may not know you or what you’ve done or what you’ve accomplished and I know that you’ve done something extraordinary in your life and you’re capable of doing more extraordinary things going forward.
It’s important to understand what you need to do in order to accomplish more extraordinary things though.
Break It Down – One Two
So what I want to do is simplify the definition of the word extraordinary by breaking it up into two words:
Extra + Ordinary
So basically, in order to be ExtraOrdinary, you just have to do Ordinary things Extra or an Extra amount of Ordinary things.
Extra + Ordinary = Extraordinary
Got it?
Boom! Done right?
No? Not yet?
O.k., let’s look at some examples.
I love this first example.
Let The Revolution Begin!
At 211 Degrees, water is HOT!
At 212 Degrees, it boils.
When water boils, it produces steam.
And steam can power engines and locamotives.
Steam began the Industrial Revolution!
All this from 1 Degree of heat.
That’s Extraordinary.
Small things, small steps, can lead to EXTRAordinary results!
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, once said, “Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Author Sam Parker (Simple Truths and Walk The Talk) says, “Success in anything has one fundamental aspect – effort. To achieve exponential results requires additional effort… Sometimes you’ll have immediate exponential results and sometimes you’ll realize the benefits of your extra effort much farther down the road. Regardless, in many cases, it may only be that one extra push that gets you ten times the results you were attempting to originally obtain.”
Additional Effort.
By the way, Sam Parker’s book is phenomenal. You should get it. And if you buy it from the link below, I’ll get a little something something from Amazon too.
One Extra Push.
“Inches make a champion.” — Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame Football Coach
Seconds make a champion as well. The margin for victory between an Olympic Gold Medal and no medal at all is inches, seconds, one extra push.
During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the margin of victory was:
Men’s 200 meter Freestyle (Swimming) 1.42 Seconds
Men’s 800 meter (Running) 0.71 Seconds
Women’s 800 meter (Running) 0.13 Seconds
Men’s Long Jump 28 Centimeters
Women’s Long Jump 11 Centimeters
One extra push.
Additional Effort.
Ordinary becomes Extraordinary!
If you want to become Extraordinary, do the ordinary again and again and get really good at it until you become extraordinary.
Successful, I would say, Extraordinary, people do what unsuccessful and ordinary people are not willing to do.
The Impossible IS Possible
Jeff Olson, Author of the book The Slight Edge, says, “The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.”
Get his book from my Amazon link here:
You want to do the impossible?
Put a little effort into it.
Jeff says, “Showing up is essential. Showing up consistently is powerful. Showing up consistently with a positive outlook is even more powerful.”
Show up.
Award winning director, producer Woody Allen says, “Eighty percent of success is showing up!”
That’s grand coming from me since in my last post I told you that I had to listen to my body and basically do nothing all week. D’oh!
And I had to do that in order to move forward.
Sometimes You Need To Slow Down To Go Fast.
In an article by Kristine Maudal and Evan Fossen on the Huffington Post, they say, “The founder of the Roman Empire, Augustus, would use the Latin phrase ‘Festina Lente.’ This translates to: ‘Make haste, slowly.’ It served as a reminder for Augustus to perform activities with a proper balance of urgency and diligence. When we start to move too fast, we often do not see what we need to see. It is important to move slow enough to make the necessary corrections as they come up. If not, we end up spending more time because we need to go back fixing things that have gone astray.”
Last week I had to slow down in order for my body to recover so I could proceed and move faster. This week, that’s exactly what I did. I went a little faster a little more – even through the pain.
In Week 1, the word of the week was Pain. In that writing, I mentioned two types of pain; one that hurts you and one that changes you and heals you. Two weeks ago, I was experiencing the first kind of pain – the one that hurts. By resting and healing, I was able to then continue with the second kind of pain – the one that is changing me; helping me; growing me.
So this week, I showed up.
I showed up to my (out of shape, older men) rec basketball play and I was able to play a bit longer without getting too tired.
I showed up to the gym and was able to walk/jog a bit further without dying on the treadmill.
I put in a little extra.
I put in a little more effort.
I showed up and continued to persevere.
I just when I wanted to stop, I didn’t.
I did pause and listen to my body.
I paused and felt to see how I was feeling.
And then I went further.
I went longer.
I did a little more.
Then I showed up again after a day of rest and did… extra again.
While I am not able to run a marathon yet (or even a 5k for that matter), I will continue to put in a little extra where and when I can – listening to my body, so that down the road, eventually, I’ll become achieve an extraordinary result for myself.
I have achieved many extraordinary things in my life and I know you have too.
You’ve Done Many Great Things.
You’ve achieved many great things.
Think about it.
What are some great… no extraordinary things you’ve achieved in the past?
What extraordinary thing are you working on achieving now?
You’ve done it before and you can do it again.
All by doing just a little more.
Doing a little extra of the ordinary things in order to become extraordinary.
And This One Time… At Band Camp…
Here’s a real life example for you.
I was out at a Networking lunch today and one of the members of the group was talking about how he overcame stage fright.
Back in the day, he played the Trumpet.
One year, he decided to play at a competition and he chose a particularly difficult piece to play. He practiced this piece for 4 months playing it over and over again.
When the competition finally came around, he completely blew (no pun intended) his performance. His exact words were, “I took a $#!t in front of the judges.” As you can tell, he was very frank with his language.
He said he was so frustrated that he went home and threw his trumpet against the wall and cursed up a storm. His parents told him he had to take a valium to calm down which made him even more upset.
The next day, he talked to his band instructor and the instructor simply said, “You don’t need a valium to calm down. You just needed to play that piece over and over again in front of an audience before you went to the competition.”
That too didn’t make him happy because he had spent 3 hours every day for 4 months practicing the piece and knew he could play it, so why would performing it in front of a few people a few times make a difference?
Fast forward a few months and another competition is coming up. This time he chose another difficult piece. He practiced this piece for days on end as well.
Guess what he did differently this time though?
He took the advice of his band instructor and started playing the piece in front of a few people. Then he found a few clubs he could play in front of. Then he was able to play it in a few mall performances.
When the competition came around guess what happened?
Yeah, he won.
He didn’t do anything different than he did before except that one extra thing – play in front of people.
He said that he finally realized that the pressure of the competition the first time was what made him fail miserably. And while he did the exact same thing he did to prepare both times, the second time he made a small tweak. He did something extra – play in front of people before the competition.
He practiced just as hard both times.
He worked just as hard both times.
He knew the music just as well both times.
He was just as good both times.
And yet that one little factor, that one little thing he did Extra made all the difference in the world. By doing that one Extra thing of just playing in front of people a few times instead of just playing by himself, he went from losing miserably to winning. From failure to extraordinary.
Truth be told, he was extraordinary both times – people just didn’t see it. He didn’t see it – until he did that one extra push.
Remember Jeff Olson, author of The Slight Edge? He says, “Any time you see what looks like a breakthrough, it is always the end result of a long series of little things, done consistently over time.”
The guy from my group had a breakthrough. It allowed him to win a competition. In the end, what really allowed him to win was hours upon hours of practice on one piece of music.
Think about it. He could play in front of a crowd of people 100 times and if he never practiced his music, he still would not have won that competition. So although it seemed like that one thing made all the difference, it was really just him doing the ordinary – practicing every day – a little bit extra than every one else. And then pushing himself just 1 Degree more by practicing in front of an audience.
Be Extra ordinary.
Do the just a bit more every time.
Be the 1 Degree that makes water boil.
Push yourself to do just a bit more each and every time.
You’ll be amazed at the results.
And My Results?
Well after not doing anything for a full week and then getting back into it, I’ve lost an additional 2 pounds. I did continue to eat less even though I did not move more last week. I believe last week I actually gained a pound.
And well, as I said, weight is not the best measure of results.
What’s an even better measure is that I don’t get as tired after spending 10 minutes on the treadmill any more.
What’s even better is that I can jog just a bit faster on the treadmill now than I could 6 weeks ago.
What’s better is that I can do a couple more push ups than I could 6 weeks ago and not get as tired.
What’s better is that overall – except for the constant dull muscle aches and pains, I do feel healthier overall.
And for those of you following my weight gains and losses, I’m actually down a total of about 15 pounds depending on what I eat and when I weigh in (give or take a pound or two).
When I started I was at 232 pounds (the most I’ve ever weighed in my life).
I’m now somewhere between 217 – 218 pounds.
My Target Weight?
Well I don’t really have one.
I just plan on being healthy and the weight will take care of itself.
Although I do believe I did mention that several years ago I took a test and it said that my ideal body weight based upon my body density and some other factors should be about 205.
At my peak physical fitness stage when I was about 21 or 22 years old, I was about 175 pounds with 4 ½ % body fat.
I don’t believe I’m going to get down that low either in weight or body fat any time soon, and we’ll see what happens as I continue on my path of moving more and eating less.
Who knows, by this time next year I might be doing triathlons and marathons.
Or I just might only be jogging around my neighborhood with my son.
Either way, I expect to b
What about you?
What are you focusing on and are you doing what you need to do in order to become extraordinary in it?
Drop me a line and let me know and as always,
Celebrate Life!
Chaffee-Thanh Nguyen