NORMAL ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE

I will bet that all of us have heard of Sigmund Freud but have you ever heard of Carl Jung? Carl Jung was the father of many of the modern psychology principles used today. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was developed from Jung’s theories.

Carl Jung also made some great statements during his lifetime, one that I want you to think about today is;

“TO BE NORMAL IS THE GOAL OF UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE”

Carl Jung knew people thru his work as an Analytical Psychologist and one thing that he discovered is the norm for most people is mediocrity. From this he made the leap to the statement above.

1)      The norm for people is mediocrity

2)      People don’t consider mediocre successful

3)      People want to be considered normal

4)      Normal people are unsuccessful

It doesn’t matter if you agree with his line of thinking or not, you can hardly argue with his theory. Most people are not successful and they consider themselves normal. Most people who are successful are NOT normal. As a matter of fact it is almost the rule that the further you are away from normal the more successful you can become.

I have my thoughts on this and I would like to share them with you. To start with let me try and outline what I believe people view as normal. People think normal is;

1)      Going to work everyday

2)      Doing the least amount of work they can to keep their jobs

3)      Accepting the security of a “PAYCHECK” for what someone thinks they are worth rather than taking the chance of getting paid what they are really worth

4)      Letting time be the reason for their promotion rather than accomplishment

5)      Not “rocking the boat”

6)      Working 50 weeks a year to get their 2 week vacation

7)       Waiting to be handed everything rather than going after it for themselves

8)      Looking at fellow workers that retire with envy

9)      Living on a budget

10)   NEVER asking WHY or saying NO

I guess that describes normal and unsuccessful as closely as I can in 10 bullets. After reading these 10 items I hope that you can see that if this is normal the LAST thing that you should be trying to be is NORMAL!

Let me give you another quote from one of my hero’s, Albert Gray;

“THE COMMON DENOMINATOR OF SUCCESS FOR ANYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN SUCCESSFUL – LIES IN THE FACT THAT THEY FORMED THE HABIT OF DOING THINGS THAT FAILURES DON’T LIKE TO DO”

I believe Albert Gray was saying, you can’t be normal and succeed! You need to take the route that most people are not willing to take and do the things most people are not willing to do. Albert Gray wasn’t a psychologist, he wasn’t a Doctor or a great master of the human mind, Albert Gray was an insurance executive with Prudential Insurance Company for 30 years. The common denominator of success was delivered to in 1940 to the National Association of Life Underwriters, 71 years later it is still as true, as meaningful and as inspiring as it was then.

The bottom line is simple, success isn’t normal if it were than what would we consider better?

I hope this gave you something to think about. I know that I did a lot of thinking as I prepared to write this post and will continue to think about this for a long time to come.

Lorin