How to Be Amazing

One of my favorite things to write about is PEOPLE.

I often get the chance to interview people and just ask them:

How did you end up here? 

By “here” I mean right where they are in their lives… doing exactly what they are doing.

Cutting hair,

owning a bar,

running a business + being mom + and a cook,

using images to make commercial ventures look beautiful,

or wrangling web content and running for local government.

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Regardless of WHO they are, and where HERE is, I can say without hesitation, they answer the question the same:

“I got here by going forward.”

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People might be ordinary. They might be famous (my interviews with Sammy Hagar and Lyle Lovett?  Same answer!).

More than likely people you meet are somewhere in between. Something special but nothing BIG.

Yet, amazing. 

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The thing I keep learning from people — no matter who they are —  is this:

A key to success in life is living your life. Your own life.

I am just coming to realize it. Colin is a great help at reminding me about this:

“Hey honey! Stop fretting and just be yourself, for heaven’s sake. Just experiment with life. See what its got to give you!”

Life’s creative flow always serves me best. Try less. Be more.

It’s the hesitation that takes me down.

I feel an idea come on and I start to move in the direction of that idea and —

Then I don’t.

Not every time do I hesitate, but I can feel it when it happens. I can feel the fear or the uncertainty creep in.

That’s because I don’t believe I am amazing. Not the same way the Universe does. Nor the way the rest of world might.

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If you ever start feeling hesitant, (or like you’re trying too hard) take my advice: people are the answer.

Not on Facebook. Not on Twitter. Not in some great character in a movie (though it’s fun to meet some great and beautiful strangers on This American Life.)

Go find a friend you know. One who you think is AMAZING.  One that does something ordinary in a beautiful way.

Have coffee. Tell her how you feel. And ask her if she thinks the same about herself. She might.

Probably she doesn’t.

So won’t it be nice to remind her how great she is?

And remind yourself, at the same time, how amazing it is to be perfectly ordinary.
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