Do ordinary things extraordinarily well!

There's a scene at the end of the 2001 movie, Black Hawk Down that I found really powerful and think about from time to time.  The character SSG Matt Eversmann, played by the actor Josh Hartnett is saying goodbye to a fallen comrade.  He is telling a story about a conversation he had with a friend at home before he deployed to Somalia, "Why do you want to go off and fight someone else's war, do you think you're a hero?"  Hartnett's character says, "I didn't know what to tell him at the time, but if you asked me now, I'd say, 'Hell no.  No one asks to be a hero.  It just sometimes turns out that way."

We are heading into the high school and college graduation season.  I suspect that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of these will be re-scheduled or held virtually.  Regardless, high school and college graduates everywhere are likely thinking about the next journey in their lives.  Many want to change the world!  I know that's how I felt when I graduated from college. 

Unfortunately, too many of these young individuals think that the only measure of success is to do extraordinary things - perhaps be the first person to walk on Mars, become President of the United States, play professional sports, or even find a cure for COVID-19.  Many of these same individuals think that if they don't do something great, they won't have lived a meaningful and successful life.

The problem is that the vast majority of these high school and college graduates will never become famous.  Not everyone can be the first person to walk on Mars, of course.  And the chances of becoming President are less than one in a million!  But here's the thing, you don't have to be a hero to live a life full of meaning.  As the writer Emily Esfahani Smith recently wrote in the New York Times, "The most meaningful lives, are often not the extraordinary ones. They're the ordinary ones lived with dignity." 

You shouldn't measure your life by whether you do extraordinary things.  Success should be measured by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.  Mother Teresa once said, "Not all of us can do great things.  But we can do small things with great love."

Emily Esfahani Smith writes further, "You don't have to change the world or find your one true purpose to lead a meaningful life.  A good life is a life of goodness - and that's something anyone can aspire to, no matter their dreams or circumstances."

Let us all strive to live a life of goodness, by doing small things with great love.