Yesterday, as I paused to remember lives given in service, I began reflecting on what makes a life meaningful and what it means to live in a way that feels worth everything we have to give.
Our culture glorifies being extraordinary, and that relentless striving creates exhaustion and disconnection from what’s most real. It’s too easy to get swept up in it. So yesterday I paused and embodied what it is to be ordinary.
At first it wasn’t easy, words like failure and waste ricocheted about my head. But my body screamed MORE as it gasped for air.
What if ordinary isn’t a failure? What if ordinary is presence, honesty, and being here for the life we actually have?
I felt a peacefulness that comes from letting go of any need to prove.
True impact often arises not from striving, but from being deeply ourselves.
In that moment of peace, in that field with my usual furry sidekicks, I allowed myself to be me.
Ordinary moments, a conversation, a shared meal, a quiet morning, hold profound meaning when we slow down and bring awareness to them.
And then it struck me, perhaps there is no ordinary. Perhaps everything becomes sacred when we meet it with attention and care.
In the quiet rhythm of daily life, meaning is constantly being made. Not in the grand gestures, but in the tenderness of showing up fully for what is already here.
Extraordinary leadership comes from grounded ordinariness, from humility, consistency, and presence rather than performance. I’ve witnessed this time and again.
The leaders who change the world aren’t the loudest or most visionary, but those who are steady, real, and willing to be seen as simply human.
The work of leadership, at its heart, is relational; it’s how we meet others, moment by moment, with clarity and care.
We live in a world that celebrates uniqueness, scale, and visibility. Everyone is trying to stand out, to make an impact, to be extraordinary yet so many of us feel unseen, disconnected, and profoundly lonely.
Perhaps our loneliness isn’t because we are too ordinary, but because we’ve forgotten how to rest in our ordinariness, in the simple, mutual humanness that connects us all.
Ordinariness isn’t the absence of greatness; it’s the foundation of belonging.
Maybe our deepest purpose isn’t to stand apart, but to stand together, ordinary and whole.
The pressure to be more, more successful, more visible, more extraordinary, can pull us away from what’s most real.
Tracey Burns supports founders and leaders to lead from truth, integrity, and the quiet confidence that comes from being fully human. Every meaningful change begins with honesty, let’s find yours.
