It’s a question most of us carry, even if we never say it out loud. Are you the chosen one, meant for something extraordinary, or just another regular person moving through an ordinary life?
It shows up in small ways. Maybe you sit in a busy café, sipping your coffee, and glance at the stranger across the room who’s typing furiously on their laptop. They look like they’re building something important, something worth remembering. You start to wonder: Do they know something I don’t? Am I missing my chance to stand out?
The world feeds us this myth of the chosen one. Movies and books love the storyline where a person wakes up one day to discover they’re special, gifted, destined to lead or save or create something monumental. And because those stories are everywhere, we secretly imagine our lives might hold that same reveal. That one strange opportunity, one hidden talent, one fateful moment will arrive and change everything.
But here’s the raw truth: no one is coming to tap you on the shoulder and tell you you’re the chosen one. That crown doesn’t get handed out. In real life, extraordinary isn’t stumbled upon. It’s built.
Think about the people you admire. Athletes, entrepreneurs, artists, leaders. Do you think they woke up one morning with a label stamped on their forehead that read “special”? Most started as painfully regular. No one clapped for them at the beginning. In fact, people probably doubted them. What separated them wasn’t destiny. It was their decision to keep moving when others stopped. To practice when nobody was watching. To push themselves long after the applause had faded.
Here’s where it gets difficult: being regular feels safe. It means you keep expectations reasonable, you blend in, you avoid disappointing yourself. We’ve been trained to believe that being ordinary is the baseline, and anything above it requires permission. But that permission doesn’t exist. Nobody grants it to you. You write it for yourself.
Maybe you’ve already dismissed yourself as “not the chosen one.” Maybe you compare your work, your progress, or your life to people online who seem to shine brighter, and you tell yourself you’re not cut from that kind of fabric. But consider this—what if the difference between being regular and being remarkable has nothing to do with a hidden gift, and everything to do with your threshold for effort?
I think of a friend who once told me he felt invisible, like he’d never do anything important. Yet five years later, he’s running his own business. Not because fate singled him out, but because he stopped waiting for destiny and started putting things into motion. He built his way, brick by brick, into a life that once seemed impossible.
So are you the chosen one, or just regular? Here’s the secret: you get to decide. Every day you’re handed chances to rise or retreat. Most people retreat. Which is why the opportunities to stand out are never as rare as they seem.
Don’t wait for a crown to appear on your head. Don’t wait for someone to tell you you’re special. Start the project, take the risk, write the book, create the thing no one else has the nerve to create. That’s how you transform. That’s how people begin to look at you differently. And, maybe most importantly, that’s how you begin to see yourself differently.
So stop waiting to be called the chosen one. Choose yourself. Because the people who change their lives aren’t chosen. They’re the ones who have the courage to choose.
