It’s the end of the year. People are blogging about their favorite memories, their biggest challenges, and their hopes and plans for the new year. I haven’t had the energy for introspection. And I’m okay with that.

Instead, I’m making a simple plan: embrace being ordinary, even average. In our culture of striving for excellence, this plan is going to take courage.

Here are some gems I found to inspire me, and maybe you, too…

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“Often we take for granted just being ordinary. We feel the constant pressure to compete, to excel, and to be special. The fact is most people are average with respect to any particular human characteristic. That is the definition of average. And yet many are not satisfied with the average or ordinary and tend to be discontent and always striving. It is a great relief and healing when you realize that just being ordinary and your ordinary life are wonderful gifts.”

Healing Zen, by Ellen Birx

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“Now I see that the journey was never meant to lead to some new and improved version of me; that it has always been about coming home to who I already am.”

Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment, by Katrina Kenison

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Perhaps most tragically, when we work so hard to be special, there is no time to be alive! No time to open our arms to the simple, the average, the everyday. Which is where 99.9% of the life happens and where we get to be who we are!

In Celebration of Being Ordinary, by Jennifer Louden

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“I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”

Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger