“Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.”—Jodie Foster
The more I teach courses like “Exercise Testing and Prescription” the more I am bothered by normative data—especially as it relates to age. Accordingly, I am expected to see declines in strength and performance and increases in body fat. I am expected age like everyone else. That is normal.
Normal is what everyone else does—for better or for worse. It is not necessarily what I should be doing. It is not what you should be doing.
Normal is not a “growth mindset.” Growth is a herd mindset.
“No! Don’t think outside of the box! Once you say that, you’ve established that there is a box.”—Walt Disney
Coyte Cooper (Make Your Mark and Flip the Script) taught me not to set “reasonable” goals like we are taught with the SMART goal-setting approach (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and time). Instead, our goals should be unreasonable by ordinary standards. In other words, strive to be beyond “normal”—beyond the expectations of others.
Be (extra)ordinary! “Normal”—ever the higher percentiles for your age, gender, etc.—is what is expected. Normal is not potential. Normal is, by definition, “ordinary.”
People have expectations based on how others perform. We were not created to be normal. We were created to be (extra)ordinary.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!