{"id":9010,"date":"2012-01-30T23:00:36","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T07:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=9010"},"modified":"2013-09-16T15:00:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T23:00:35","slug":"how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make the Most of the Mundane"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to find wonder in the midst of our everyday lives transforms the agony of the struggle into the adventure of becoming.\u201d \u2013 Kim Thomas<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf only my life were more interesting!\u201d you might be thinking.<\/p>\n

A while back, I read about an incident involving a live grenade that continues to remind me that the mundane matters.<\/p>\n

Second Lieutenant Kok Khew Fai was overseeing the safety of 50 army recruits during a live hand grenade throw in Singapore. Kok stood a short distance away from the recruits as, one by one, they took turns lobbing a live grenade toward the target.<\/p>\n

As one of the recruits attempted to fling the grenade forward, it slipped out of his hand and landed 10 feet behind him. Dumbfounded by what had just happened, he stood motionless. Death was literally seconds away.<\/p>\n

Without any hesitation, Kok sprinted over to the recruit, jumped on him, and forced him to lie prone behind a low wall at the back of the throwing bay. The grenade detonated moments later, and thankfully both of them escaped unharmed.<\/p>\n

When I read this news report, I imagined what I would have done if I\u2019d been in Kok\u2019s position. Military service for male citizens is mandatory in Singapore and I, too, was once a second lieutenant, so I could have been faced with the same situation.<\/p>\n

Your natural instinct would tell you to run, take cover and save yourself. But as an officer who has a responsibility to your men, you know what you ought to do. With so much on the line but with absolutely no time to think, would I have put the safety of my recruit above that of my own? I wish I could confidently say \u201cyes,\u201d but the more truthful answer is that I really don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

I often wonder how people like Kok become so brave. Do they have some sort of natural gifting? Did their parents drill into them the importance of courage when they were growing up? Before the incident occurred, did they even know that they were so fearless?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve concluded that it\u2019s in the mundane tests of day-to-day living that we ready ourselves to face exceptional challenges. It\u2019s in the ordinary that we prepare ourselves for the extraordinary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that extraordinary people only do extraordinary things some<\/em> of the time. Most of the time, they\u2019re occupied with the routine, the monotonous, the boring. In other words, they\u2019re just like us normal people. But it\u2019s in the mundane that they develop the skills, attitude and character traits that enable them to excel when the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n

Extraordinary people aren\u2019t extraordinary because of good fortune. They\u2019re extraordinary because they make extraordinarily good use of the ordinary circumstances in their lives.<\/p>\n

They see every choice as one between character and compromise. They recognize that a decision is never trivial, because they\u2019re really deciding between becoming a person of greater character and becoming a person who compromises on what\u2019s of real significance.<\/p>\n

Every one of us will experience a limited number of defining moments in our lives\u2014moments that test us and reveal who we are, moments that determine our legacy.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll never know exactly when we\u2019ll be tested, so we always need to be alert. Character and integrity never take a day off. After all, a great life isn\u2019t built in a day; it\u2019s built day by day.<\/p>\n

We often look at the Michael Jordan\u2019s, Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s and Oprah Winfrey\u2019s of this world and tell ourselves that we\u2019re not as talented or lucky as them, so we\u2019ll never attain similar success. We tend to forget about the immense, and unglamorous, effort they exerted early on in their lives, which allowed them to eventually make it big.<\/p>\n

They mastered the ordinary before they had any hope of becoming extraordinary.<\/p>\n

When we begin to grasp just how much power and potential lie hidden within the ordinary\u2014the things we typically don\u2019t want to do, or even the things we hate<\/em> to do\u2014we\u2019ll see it as a chance to become a bigger and better person.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll learn to embrace life\u2014not just the thrilling experiences, but the dull and even painful ones, too.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s not despise the mundane. Instead, let\u2019s make the most of it. Let\u2019s create a mundane masterpiece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About Daniel Wong<\/strong>: Daniel Wong is passionate about helping people to maximize their education, career and life. He spent two years in the military and currently holds the rank of First Lieutenant. He currently works as a project engineer, and is the author of The Happy Student: 5 Steps to Academic Fulfillment and Success<\/a>. You can read his blog at\u00a0Living Large<\/a> and find him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":9047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[1869,1867,331,729,4631,1868,66,4629],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-31T07:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-16T23:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"498\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Falconer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png\",\"width\":\"498\",\"height\":\"366\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/\",\"name\":\"How to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-31T07:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-16T23:00:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\"},\"description\":\"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to Make the Most of the Mundane\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\",\"name\":\"Erin Falconer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Erin Falconer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/author\/erin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","description":"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","og_description":"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/","og_site_name":"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain","article_published_time":"2012-01-31T07:00:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-09-16T23:00:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"498","height":"366","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@pickthebrain","twitter_site":"@pickthebrain","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erin Falconer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/","name":"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Screen-shot-2012-01-30-at-2.28.35-PM.png","width":"498","height":"366"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/","name":"How to Make the Most of the Mundane - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2012-01-31T07:00:36+00:00","dateModified":"2013-09-16T23:00:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5"},"description":"Do you wish your life were more exciting? I\u2019m guessing the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d It probably feels like you have so many mundane things to do. You have dishes to wash, reports to write, kids to pick up, laundry to do, social obligations to attend to\u2026 the list goes on.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/how-to-make-the-most-of-the-mundane\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Make the Most of the Mundane"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5","name":"Erin Falconer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1173c63284b173ff225e5f87a1af5028?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Erin Falconer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/author\/erin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}