We often puzzle ourselves with questions that we cannot answer; at least at the moment we make them. The more I make myself such questions, the more I realize that they all come down to one simple issue, purpose. So I pursue, I ask and I delve into the deepest inner makings of my being. I look around, as you might have done also, to see what others have done. My problem, and possibly yours too, is that I look to those that have excelled and have rises to the top of their fields. What I seek is that ingredient, one unspoken ingredient that it seems everyone seem to have and it eludes the rest of us.

What is it and where is it? Is it acquired or is it a gift from God? I think it is a little of both. Depending on how or where you were raised, and how that environment was rooted in you, your answer to these questions will definitely answer those questions. Got that? I know it sounds a little confusing, but bear with me for a moment. In many ways our environment somehow challenges how we perform and how we think, if we permit it. Please see that I said, “challenges”, not trump or defeat. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that you have to be born in a certain place or come from a certain family to have the ingredient that exceptional individuals have. What I am saying is that what these individuals, men and women like you and me, have achieved greatness in spite of their environment.

To acknowledge our own shortcomings, is the first step to greatness. So even when our placing is a challenge and impacts us directly in many ways, it doesn’t have to. In an overwhelming majority of the times, we have a choice, we decide how it affects us. I’m not implying that it is or will be easy, in fact I would side with you and say that it will be even more hard for you, than the average Joe. But because of that toil, that struggle and the hustle you have to go through, that ingredient will surface all that greater. Sometimes it is precisely that struggle what brings forth the best of you. It might be, that how you handle the present situation in your life, will determine how you live the rest of your life.

What is it then? Simple, you do extraordinarily, what others seem to do well. It is the intentionality of what you do that makes the difference. It is the area of your life in which you put your entire heart at work and you take off all of the stops. We cannot have the gifts of someone else, at best we do marginally ok in someone else’s field or craft. But there is one thing you do exceptionally well and when given the opportunity you perform as if you are being recharged, because you love it. Be it writing, inspiring, preaching, teaching, sports, business, leadership, fatherhood, counseling, or whatever your gift might be, get better at it every day and do it extraordinarily.

A bad environment doesn’t mean impossible. We see it all the time. The underdogs, the outliers, those that at some point and in contrast of where they lived, or what life had handed them, decided they would do extraordinarily what others seemed to do ok. It is a choice, it is not necessarily a supernatural gift nor a one of a kind talent, it is a choice you make. And when you make it, everything changes. You can live the rest of your life living with wandering eyes, or you can become the story everyone will be inspired by. So what is it going to be? Dive in and move forward.

Do extraordinarily, what others do well.

“BREATHE expectantly, LIVE confidently and MOVE Boldly”

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© Copyright Danny Maldonado, 2012
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.