When driving, I enjoy puzzling over the custom license plate messages people share daily. This week: YBNORML caught my eye. It is a good question: Why be normal?
To answer this good question, let’s uncover the definition of normal. As an adjective, to be normal is to conform to a standard or to behave in typical or expected ways. Some days behaving normally helps us get through the day, to keep our jobs, or to live up to other people’s expectations in ways that help us achieve our goals.
As a noun, to be normal is to be existing in a typical state or condition. Some of our personalities thrive on typical states of being. Other personalities prefer constant change, leaving little time or room for a typical condition to exist: in this case, normal is constant change. What is your normal? What does a normal day look like for you? For your workplace? For your home?
Another good question: Are your daily “normals” working well for you? If “yes”, great – keep going, doing, being normal. Or, is “normal” failing to help you achieve your goals and dreams? When normal is not working, focus on why it is not working and what you can be doing, or being, to achieve your goals and dreams.
Over the decades of living, I’ve discovered that what I grew up thinking was normal, is far from it. How about you? Has your growing-up “normal” turned out to be normal? In what ways? What “normal” are you creating every day for yourself and the people around you?
It’s a lot to consider. So, when being normal works for you, be normal. When being normal doesn’t work for you, figure out how to be your best self and be it!
Hmm. All of this thought prompted by a license plate! What can jolt your thought in positive directions today?