Life Pro Tip #4: Be Exceptional

Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth.

Everyone you know has dozens, and they just give them away for free.

Your family, your coworkers, your friends, and even the people who you see on the street all have opinions about what you should and shouldn’t do.

If you let them, they’ll try to make you fit into some arbitrary definition of what is “normal.” The pressure to be normal, boring and mediocre is an immense force in nearly everyone’s life.

However, other people’s opinions are mostly irrelevant. The only person who can live your life is you.

If you’re giving up your own happiness in order to fit into someone else’s definition of normal, your life is going to be pretty limited.

Don’t be someone boring in a black and white world. Be exceptional.

If you want to live an interesting life, you have to accept that a lot of people will think you’re strange, and you have to accept that your parents, your coworkers, and the middle-aged housewives on the bus might disapprove of you.

That’s okay.

Disapproving of others is much easier than accepting people’s differences, and being mediocre requires much less effort than being exceptional.

“Normal” is the world’s easiest social club.

Being exceptional is more difficult.

Also, if you need any inspiration about this point, listen to Jocko Willink. Start here: Where does discipline come from?

If you want more tough love from me, you should check out The Zen of Blogging.