“Everybody is after being extraordinary. That is the search of the ego: to be someone who is special, to be someone who is unique, incomparable. And this is the paradox: the more you try to be exceptional, the more ordinary you look, because everybody is after extra ordinariness. It is such an ordinary desire. If you become ordinary, the very search to be ordinary is extraordinary, because rarely does somebody want to be just nobody. This is really extraordinary in a way, because nobody wants it. And when you become ordinary you become extraordinary, and, of course, suddenly you discover that without searching you have become unique.

In fact, everybody is unique. If you can stop your constant running after goals for even a single moment, you will realize that you are unique. Your uniqueness is nothing to be invented, it is already there. It is already the case – to be is to be unique. There is no other way of being. Every leaf on a tree is unique, every pebble on the shore is unique, there is no other way of being. Two identical things do not exist at all, so there is no need to be “somebody.” You just be yourself, and suddenly you are unique, incomparable. That’s why I say that this is a paradox: those who search fail, and those who don’t bother, suddenly attain. The desire to be extraordinary is too ordinary because everybody has it. And to be understanding so as to become ordinary is quite extraordinary because it is rare.”

Osho