Don't Be Normal, Be Unique: Why "normal" Is Dumb

Don’t be normal. “Normal” people get “normal” results. “Normal” workers deliver “normal” quality. “Normal” businesses reach “normal” success. “Normal” financial, relational, health, personal, professional, and spiritual status is saddening. You don’t want normal. You want to break the statistical average.

Defining “Normal”

The word “normal” came to English around the 17th century from the Latin “normalis”, meaning a right angle. You and I use it as “conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern; characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine” (Merriam-Webster).

Conforming, acting according to, not deviating from the norm are self-debilitating and self-limiting choices. Run-of-the-mill quality, quantity, value, and customs are rarely satisfactory. “Normal” cannot, by definition, be great, unusual, striking, funny, or novel, or any other awesome adjective.

Nobody Cares About Normal

By aiming for “normal” or to “fit in”, you’re missing the bullseye from the get-go. Nobody cares about normal businesses with normal products and/or services—hence family pizzerias who don’t care to innovate shut down. Nobody bats an eye at artists who don’t stand out in their creative ideas. Nobody with normal results wins scholarships or trophies or launches exceptional enterprises. Nobody “normal” sports a fit body, eats healthily, is financially free, has prospering relationships, and possesses a meaningful and purposeful career.

You have standards. Standards which I guarantee exceed “normal”. The Average American: fat (overweight and likely obese, maybe severely obese), lacks exercise and movement, lives indoors (93 percent of their life), is broke (56 percent can’t cover a $1,000 dollar emergency), is addicted to television and their smartphone (over 1,800 hours of TV and smartphone use per year, each), is stupidly illiterate (half of US adults can’t read a book at the 8th-grade level). Do you really want to be “normal”? I hear you yelling “Hell no!” and it puts a smile on my face.

Abnormal ≠ Extraordinary

Where people run into misunderstandings is the gap. “Normal” versus billionaires, Olympic athletes, media and movie stars, spiritual gurus, bestselling authors, historical figures, and standout artists and thinkers obviously means the gap is humongous.

Uncrossable bridge. Unclimbable mountain. A tremendous gap appears in our minds between them and us. Their knowledge and skills? Impossible to attain. Their world-shaking rocket inventions? Unimaginable. Their writing (painting, sculpting, whatever) abilities? One-of-a-kind.

“Perfect” Is A Myth

The gap then crumples our ideas of a brighter future and tosses them, leaving us discouraged and inclined to “normal”. “Normal” is truly so bad because it normalizes giving up and into temptation. The gap is real. The gap just doesn’t need to be fully crossed. That’s the thing: an above-average life is a choice available to everyone. An incredible, purposeful life. The gap has the in-between, the abnormal but not exceptional.

None are required to perform at an exceptional level for fantastic results. Settle for thousands before millions, and millions before billions. Settle for pounds lost and cardiovascular fitness before Lego-shaped abs. Settle for writing a book you’re proud of with ideas you think contribute to the world before dreaming of New York Times bestsellers lists. Settle for replacing your day job with profit from your business before pursuing the fucking trillions. Being the “best”, “first”, “richest”, or “kindest”, is a shitty benchmark. Leap as high as you can, and even if you fall short of exceptional, you land further than “normal”.

Fat and Unhappy! Yay!

Besides, y’know, limiting your potential and fitting in with the obese crowd drowning in debt, you suffer psychologically. You play it safe now and lose part of you in the process. Sure takes courage to stand out and follow a peculiar path. Sure is easier to simply do what everyone does. Sure does stop you from ever finding out what you can achieve and molds you to a subjective ideal formed by society. Hey, at least you display “acceptable behavior” and have “friends” and “close ones” who “support” you and “your values”! Full steam ahead!

It’s evident “normal” isn’t the path for you. The cookie cutter lifestyle is depressing. The standard is too low. “Normal” folks don’t try their best and therefore don’t know their best. You can do better. Better doesn’t mean a gigantic shift. Better means baby steps toward a richer future, striving not for perfection but for beauty and growth in imperfections and failures.

“Normal” Limits The World

Frankly, to be incredible isn’t hard in a world where “normal” has dipped so low. Exercise a few times per week. Invest a sliver of your income. Eat your fruits, vegetables, and protein. Smoke and drink less or don’t at all. Walk and move around a bit more. Go outside and take a breath of fresh air slightly more often. Use social media, smartphones, and television or entertainment programs less. Switch off notifications and don’t respond to email or phone calls during focused work. Bam!—implement these and you’re in the top 0.1 percent.

Still possessed by the “normal” demon? Please… Imagine for a moment how boring life would be if everyone was the same. But everyone isn’t the same, and has unique characteristics and qualities, strengths and weaknesses, and quirks and inadequacies! If Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Muhammad, Isaac Newton (gravity, laws of motion), Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Confucius, Christopher Columbus (America), Cai Lun (paper), or Johannes Gutenberg (printing press) didn’t utilize their extraordinary abilities, the entire world would be missing out.

The Bottom Line

Being curious, creative, unusual, explorative… it requires taking risk. Forget living up to a nonexistent—or very, very sad—standard. Stop labeling yourself like a can of fucking tuna! There’ll always be a juicier, higher-protein, more visually appealing, less mercury containing, sexier can of tuna. Don’t be “normal”. Break the mold. Embark on a journey nobody has or is embarking on. Get nice and anxious, and uncomfortable, and laughed at, and scared. Be your best self.

In the end, the road less traveled is the road you’re looking for. “Normal” is not a virtue, but a lack of courage to switch it up. The more you try to fit into the others, the more like the others you become, and the more useless since there are plenty of the others. “Always be a first-rate version of yourself,” said Judy Garland, “instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”