What Is Normal?

Who doesn’t love those little lightning bolt moments in life hey? The impact of a great big “ah hah!” The joy of a revealing epiphany. That little buzz of excitement when you’ve cracked the secret sauce. Fabulous stuff!

Am I Normal?

I had one such moment recently when I was talking with a mentor of mine. There I was asking for help and sharing my “stuff” when he spoke up and said “but why can’t that be normal?” Lightbulb! My mentor was on to something, what is normal? I decided to explore that question and began poking around in my mindset, as well as the world in general. But then I noticed that normal, actually isn’t.

Normal is a word applied to the observations we all make. Normal is a measurement, and we all measure normal in different ways. What’s normal to you, isn’t to me. What’s normal to me, isn’t to you.

Are You Normal?

For instance, catching Pokémon on your smart phone isn’t normal to me, but to millions of others it is. Role-playing a Sci-Fi character and attending a convention isn’t normal to loads of people, but go ask the opinion of a squad of Stormtroopers! Jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane doesn’t sound normal either. Or devoting your life to charity, helping the less fortunate, not necessarily normal either right?

I’d like to suggest that the statement “that’s not normal” has been used by many of us to describe something in an off-the-cuff manner that you or I see as either confronting or uncomfortable in some way. Consider this. The phrase comfort zone is all about normal, because stepping out of it leads us to believe we’re entering a far from normal place. Well, according to our own measures at least. Could that also stand to mean that our un-comfort zone is the place beyond the barriers we defined for ourselves?

Normal is the defined set of barriers we use to hold ourselves back

A Normal Life?

When I started looking back over my life where I had challenged my barriers of normal, I also found what held me back. Fear. The difference between feeling safe or unsafe, fearful or not, was a direct reflection of what I had considered normal. Is it normal to take risks? Is it normal to gamble on a hunch? Is it normal to spontaneously go in the opposite direction based on your gut-feel?

Being anything but normal exposes us, not only to the world at large but to ourselves as well. Our self-confidence is tested, and our fears kick in as we leave our comfort zone. What’s out there beyond our normal? Hellfire and damnation? None of us will know until we challenge our fears and get out there.

To me riding a motorbike on a race track at over 200kph is perfectly normal. Tends to scare the hell out of other people though. Years ago my personal challenges held me back from reaching those speeds. I didn’t think it was normal or safe to ride like that. Especially for someone with one eye and half a leg. My barriers were set in stone. Too risky, far too unsafe, danger danger danger! Until one day a riding coach put tape over my speedo. This removed my most obvious barrier of knowing what speed I was doing. Next lap, 226KPH down the back straight of Eastern Creek Raceway. Actually that’s a bit of a fib. After I’d done it a few times I took the tape off just to see hehehehe. But my goodness the thrill of blowing that barrier away? Hell yes!!!!

A Far From Normal Life?

If I didn’t challenge my fears or my sense of normal, I’d still be afraid of the unknown and completely unaware of my abilities. Those were my barriers, and my sense of normal put them there. By taking risks not just on a motorbike, but in full public view as a speaker, a coach, and a trusted advisor, I’ve been humbled to learn what my abilities can do to help others. Is that normal? Well yes according to many, but perhaps not to others.

I want to encourage all of you out there to question your normal, and when doing so allow it to reveal your barriers. What do you really want to do? Where do you want to be? Is it normal? Are you fearful? Are you going to sit and wonder, saying if only? Or are you ready to say “stuff that” and get outside your comfort zone into your world of not normal?

Post originally published here.

P.S Yours free, click here for an e-copy of my biography “Shift Your View”.

Simon Sharky Clark

Helping individuals and businesses create 
positive shifts in their mindset and their way of thinking.

E: simon@theshiftinitiator.com
W: http://theshiftinitiator.com/about