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[Kriss]

In this episode, we’re gonna talk about how the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

[Music]

[Kriss]

Hey! Welcome back to another episode of the Positivity Powerhouse Podcast. I’m Kriss, and I’ll be your positivity powerhouse today, tomorrow, whenever. But it’s gonna be me ‘cause you’re stuck with me.

Today’s message from the wall is: “the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”

And, if you’ve known me for more than about five years, you know that I grew up in a football town, in a football family. I was a football fan. I wanted to play football. When I couldn’t play football, I joined the marching band so I was at every game anyway for free. Got free food, got great seats, got to play the flute, and the piccolo, and it was AWESOME.

Except for, you know, those games where you had to scrape three feet of snow off the field with like, I don’t know, bulldozers or something. Whatever you use to move large amounts of snow off of a grassy field.

And, when I played the flute, condensation from my breath froze in the mouthpiece of my flute. So, I had to, like, go and run it under hot water in the bathroom before halftime so I could still be able to play. 

Didn’t enjoy that game so much, but the rest of them- the rest of them were GREAT.

Well, maybe not the rainy ones or the ones where it was sleeting. Always fun to play when it’s sleeting, you know. To be outdoors in a band uniform and a jacket and playing the flute with sleet blowing in your face.

So, maybe the marching band isn’t so much fun.

FOOTBALL would’ve been great, though. Would have LOVED THAT because you’re on the field, and you’re beating up on people, and it’s LEGAL.

Sometimes you need that angst relief when you’re a teenager. You just really need to beat up on something, and it’s either going to be yourself or that kid from the other school that you’re never gonna see again and who you really don’t care about. 

Because the other team is the enemy, and we gotta beat the enemy, and we gotta crush them and kill them and destroy them, beat them good and you know, all the football-ly things that people say about football.

But, I grew up a football fan.

So, if you’ve been a football fan, like ever, you probably know who Jimmy Johnson is before I even have to tell you who he is.

Jimmy Johnson is a former pro-football coach, he’s an NFL commentator, and he’s an inductee in the NFL Hall of Fame. He is a big freakin’ football deal.

He is THE MAN.

He is GREAT.

And he said that the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra because if you don’t see the words written down, you don’t realize that extraordinary has that ‘a’ in there to make it extra-ordinary.

 

Just in case you had never seen it written down.

 

There are words like that, don’t judge me.

 

And it kind of reminds me: there was this movie that came out in 2006 called “Facing the Giants,” and, for the most part, I hated the movie. I really hated the movie. I hated the movie. 

 

Critics hated the movie.

Lots and lots of people hated the movie.

 

It was just a bad movie.

 

But, there was this one scene called “The Death Crawl Scene.” You can find it on YouTube, just search for “death crawl facing the giants YouTube” and you will find this scene.

 

And the coach is, you know, chewing out this kid, who’s this quarterback, you’re supposed to be the leader of this team. Team captain, you know, whoever the heck he is, and wants him to do a death crawl with his buddy on his back.

 

Basically what it is is that, you know, you get down on all fours, your knees can’t touch the ground. It’s hand, hand, foot, foot (and I don’t know why I’m doing foot, foot under the desk. You can’t see it. All you can see is hand, hand, foot, foot). And your buddy lays on your back and hooks his arms around your arms so that he doesn’t fall off.

 

He’s just kind of, you know, hanging out there on your back to add this extra weight. 

 

And then the coach puts a blindfold on him, ‘cause he says, “Look, you don’t need to know how far you’ve gone. I’ll tell you when you’ve gone far enough.”

 

And, the guy’s like, “Well, I can’t do more than about twenty yards” or thirty yards, or whatever it is he says.

 

And the coach says, “Well, I bet you can do more than that. I bet you can go farther than that.”

 

So, he gets down, and he gets his buddy on his back, coach blindfolds him so he can’t see how far he is going, and then he starts going.

 

And he keeps going.

 

And he keeps going, and he starts yelling about how it hurts and he can’t do it anymore. It hurts and he can’t do it anymore. And it hurts and he can’t do it anymore. And you get the idea. And he can’t do it anymore. 

 

And coach keeps saying, “You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. You’ve come so far. You’re so close, just a little further. Just a little further. You can do it.”

 

You know, “dig deep, you can do it. You got this.”

 

And dude finally collapses and takes the blindfold off- No, he collapses, and the coach says, “Take the blindfold off. You’re in the end zone.”

 

And he had started in the opposite end zone.

 

Now, if you’re not a football person, you may not know this, but from end zone to end zone, it’s 100 yards, and that’s really freakin’ far to crawl on your hands and feet, no knees, with your buddy on your back.

 

I mean, it’s far to crawl on your hands and feet anyway, without your buddy on your back, but with your 140 pound friend on your back, REALLY BIG DEAL. 

 

So it was just that little extra of the blindfold and the coach encouraging him that meant he made it more than twice as far as he thought he was going to be able to do in the first place.

 

So, there’s a lesson there: just stick your head down and do what you’re doing and you’ll get there.

 

Don’t stop when you think you can’t do anymore.

 

I’ve got vision boards up on the walls here above my desk, and there’s one right there that says, “Stop at nothing except bedtime.”

 

And I take that very literally. I start working when I wake up and I don’t stop until I go to bed. 

 

So there.

So, how does this triple- How does this impact Triple M’s of Mood, Mindset, and Motivation? Three M’s.

Mood

For mood, it makes me feel hopeful that I can do that little extra and get that little further, that I can make it to the other end zone.

It makes me feel eager to go and do it, to go and put in that little extra. 

It makes me feel unflagging and it makes me feel aspirant, like I am aspiring to greatness when I aspire to go that little extra, to do that little extra, to be that little extra. 

Mindset

For mindset, solidly on the bright side. Totally on the bright side. I can do anything because it’s the bright side. 

Always look on the bright side of what how- I don’t know the melody of the song, but there’s a song that goes, “Always look on the bright side of life.” 

It’s from- I wanna say it’s from the musical Camelot, but I won’t swear to that. It could be a Monty Python thing, maybe. One or the other. I’m not sure which. 

But it definitely makes me feel like I wanna stay on the bright side, like I AM on the bright side. 

Because oh my gosh, look at what I could do if I just put in that little extra. If I put in that little extra oomf. If I put in that little extra “We’re gonna put on a blindfold and keep going anyway.” 

You know, if I forget that I can only walk five feet without falling over, maybe this time I can walk six.

Or seven.

Or eight.

Or ten.

Maybe with a physical therapist behind me holding on to a gait belt and a walker in front of me that I can cling on to, maybe I can even make it fifteen instead of just five.

‘Cause I’ve done that. 

How amazing is that?

I mean, you might be thinking, “Well, duh, ‘cause everybody can, like, walk.”

Well, most everybody can walk, but I am one of the ones that, like, can’t, so it’s a big deal for me to be able to walk, you know, more than five feet at a time. 

Big deal. Huge, MASSIVE.

You can’t see where my hands are out here, but they’re out there at the ends of my arms. Way out there. 

And it makes me feel zealous, like I want to… I want to be a zealot for my own achievement on the bright side by putting in that little extra, by giving that little extra.

I want to be an… oh, I don’t know, an auto-zealot? Is that what one would call a zealot for one’s self? I don’t know.

Motivation

Motivation! See, this is where it gets a little interesting for me.

I used to be a part of a direct sales company that sold skincare and color cosmetics. (I know, you can totally tell. Right? I mean, if I vogue, you can tell I used to sell skincare and color cosmetics? Yeah, you totally can’t tell. It’s OK.) 

But one thing that they talked about was that, you know, you should go the extra mile for your customer. You should take that extra step. There’s no traffic jams on the extra mile.

You know, things like- you’ve always heard that.

And that always troubled me because I don’t believe in going the extra mile, I think everything is the extra mile.

That in that type of setting, it’s not “you go the extra mile for your customer,” you just do a superlative job at caring for your customer, and that’s what you do every time.

That’s not going the extra mile because it all is the extra mile. 

It’s just what you do.

Period.

You take care of what’s important to you. 

And, it applies in life as well, in your self improvement, in your personal development. There’s no such thing as the extra mile. You take care of what’s important to you, who’s important to you, because you are the most important person in your life.

I know you’re gonna try and tell me that your kids are the most important people in your life, or that your spouse is the most important person in your life, or that the LORD is supposed to be important in your life, and I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong.

YOU are the most important person IN YOUR LIFE.

Here’s the hint: YOUR LIFE.

Not your husband’s life, not your kids’ life, not your LORD’s life.

YOUR LIFE.

You are the most important in YOUR LIFE.

So that’s who you have to take care of. That’s who’s important to you. 

It’s you. You are important to you.

So, you should believe in the extra mile for yourself. 

Full stop.

You want to be bold.

You want to be audacious.

Audacious.

And you wanna win the day.

For you.

By going that little extra to be extraordinary. 

Catch you next time!

[Outro]

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See ya next time! 

[Music]

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