Chuck Knoll coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 21 seasons. He accumulated 193 wins, which included 4 Super Bowls. He had a profound view on the requirements of winning. He said,
“Champions are not champions because they do anything extraordinary, but because they do the ordinary better than anyone else.”
 
A meaningful reflection of Jesus happens as we do the ordinary things well.
 
Counterintuitively, Coach Knoll identified ordinary things as the differentiating factor between champions and everyone else. Success is found in the midst of the ordinary, but most of the time we look for success in the things we deem above the line of ordinary.
 
Ordinary is defined as something with no special or distinctive feature. We get excited for the out of the ordinary moments, we mark our calendars by out-of-the-ordinary moments, but the majority of life is lived in the ordinary. Truth is, we miss opportunities in the ordinary because we are looking forward to the next out-of-the-ordinary moment.
 
Doing ordinary best leads to extraordinary results.
 
3 Ways To Do Ordinary Better
 
Be Present — In a hustle and flow culture, it is hard to slow down and be completely present with the person with whom you’re interacting. We check our phones, we tap our watches, we act distracted or spend the entire time talking about what we have going on. Our level of “present-ness” it typically equal to the value we are placing upon the individual in that moment.
 
Listen — We hear with our ears but we listen with our eyes. I know I have your attention when I have your eyes. Let’s listen with our eyes better than anyone else!
 
Encourage — Almost every person we cross paths with today is running on empty. They are emotionally spent, physically exhausted, and frustrated about something important. Encouragement is an ordinary component that we can do well. Many people don’t offer any encouragement, so simply speaking encouraging words already puts us in the top percentile.
 
All three of these ordinary elements are connected. If we can be present when engaging someone, we will be active listeners, which will help us identify the best way to encourage. Often times, it “feels” like it takes an out-of-the-ordinary moment to do something extraordinary, but monumental impact happens as we do ordinary better.
 
Keep Reflecting Jesus!