An Army of Normal Folks - When Normal Folks Are Abnormal

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

For "Shop Talk", Coach Bill dives into the paradox of An Army of Normal Folks doing abnormal things.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to Shop Talk number 36. Welcome in. There you go. That's better. Welcome into the shop. Was that better? That was better than the last one.

Welcome in. It's getting late. From a reader, I mean a listener. An army member. From an army member? Yeah, even better than a listener, right? An army member. He's an army member and a listener and an army member from an army member. Yeah, even better than a listener, right? And I was an army member and a listener clearly He sent this

The subject is a quote from Simon Sinek. Hey Saw this quote and thought of you Normal is what the majority does which is why different is so much more interesting. That's the quote. I know we're an army of normal folks, but your guests or so many more people, listeners, are breaking free from the expected or normal activities and doing things that are different and far more interesting. My suggestion for a shop talk is how and why doing different things are more interesting than doing normal self-serving activities. God bless you as you inspire others.

God bless you and thank you for sending me the letter. After this, why being normal is not interesting, but being an army of normal folks is different and quite interesting. I don't know how you're going to paraphrase that in the title, Alex, but that's what this shop talk number 36 is. What are you going to do? What are you going to call it? I don't know. Figure it out later.

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Great note, normal is what the majority does, which is why different is so much more interesting. When I read that, I thought of a book that I used to give when I coached football for six years. We would have a player of the week, whatever kid on Friday at a specifically great game. And it wasn't always the guy with the most touchdowns or most yardage or the most tackles. It was somebody who did something abnormal. That's making me want you to tell that story from Undefeated about it. That's so good.

What story? The player of the week didn't one player get it and then say, Shavis, you're really the player of the week. You heard that? Yeah. Well, that was- They're all crying like it was a really powerful- Yeah.

Well, if you want to watch, go watch Undefeated and you can see something that relates to the thing we're talking about right now in Shop Talk. So for the player of the week, which Davis was that particular scene, we don't give a trophy or anything, we give a book. And the book is Tony Dungy's book, which I think was the number one New York Times bestseller. Anyway, it's called uncommon. I have read it a number of times. I will give you a feel for it. Part one is called Develop Your Core with four chapters about character and integrity and courage and stewardship. Part two is Love Your Family. Part one, Develop your core. Part two, love your family. Part three, lift your friends and others.

Part four, your full potential. Part five, establish a mission that matters. Part six, choose influence over image. Oh boy. And part seven, live your faith. First, before I go into what I'm going to talk about, if you have not read uncommon by Tony Dungey, you do not have to be Tony Dungey was football coach Indianapolis Colts he is now kind of a mentor in and amongst the folks that play and operate in the NFL. He is a fabulous human being. And I highly suggest even though the books probably 10 years old now you get it and read it. It is for everybody. It has nothing to do with just football. But it's interesting what our army member said normal is what the majority does, which is

why different is so much more interesting. When Tony Dungey makes the point that being uncommon is what differentiates you from everyone else. It's common to just get up and go about your daily life and walk past those in need and do nothing. It's common to look down your nose at folks who may be living in squalor. It's common to assume that the reason kids are in gangs is because they're just bad kids. It's common to, um, well, uh, 50% of our marriages in divorce. It's common to have interpersonal issues. It's common to see people in pain and not get involved. Not long ago, a woman was caught on fire and burned to death on the subway while people filmed it with their phones. It is pretty common to be so consumed with what today's societal preconceived notions

say about who you are when you post something and you get lots of likes and that you are more consumed with the thumbs up likes on something you post on social media than you are with actually opening a helping hand to another human being and looking them in the eyes. Those things are common, not real impressive or interesting. What is different in my army members letters language, what is uncommon in Tony Dungey's letter and Tony Dungey's book is developing your core with character, honesty, integrity, humility, stewardship, and courage. By loving your family, by treating your spouse well, by being a good father and mother, by respecting authority. What is uncommon is by lifting your friends and others.

Those things are uncommon. And those things are what's interesting. I think about the opening to Monday Night Football. And you know, you see these clips of these amazing plays while they while they play all this music and I've never seen when they're exemplifying the excitement of football and they're showing these amazing clips you never see a guy catch a ball for five yards and run on a bounce it's just not something that

they they highlight because it's a common play. You never see a guy get a handoff and run three yards and get tackled and that's a highlight. It's a common play. What they what they show you is the immaculate reception. What they show you is some one-handed grab. The reason ESPN on an hour-long SportsCenter show waits to the very end of the show to show the top 10 plays of the day is because you're willing to sit through an hour show just to see those 10 plays because they're amazing and they're uncommon. The reason they play the loud music and show these clips of

amazing plays where somebody runs 15 yards and spins off a tackle and cuts back against the grain and goes all the way through three defenders to a touchdown is because that's not something you see all the time. It's uncommon. See, it's the uncommon that gets us on the edge of our chairs. It's the uncommon that gets us to stand up in the stands and cheer. It's the uncommon that inspires us. So that's why being different is so much more interesting. That's why being uncommon is what inspires us. Because doing what everybody else does, and allowing injustice to continue to occur without having the passion and the discipline to insert yourself where need is, where you can offer

help. Well, that's uncommon. That's inspirational. That's what moves the needle. That's what being a member of the army is. So, while you think about how common or uncommon you are, or how different or normal or interesting you are. Try to think about your passion and your abilities and your discipline and where you can put them into your culture and your society to happen to affect some type of change. Because by doing that, you become uncommon, you become different, you become interesting. And then you become a part of the army of

normal folks. So what my listener in this army member does, and what Tony Dungy does, and what I do, is try to inspire you to think about how to be uncommon, how to be different, how to be interesting, how to be interesting, how to inspire and how to exact change in your culture. All of us have the ability to do it. We just got to have the courage to step up. I'm Bill Courtney. That's Shop Talk number 36. If you like this, please rate it, review it, subscribe to the podcast, tell people about us, share this on social. Thanks to our producer, Ironlight Labs. Alex, do you have anything else to offer?

Join the army at normalfolks.us. Sign up and get the emails. Write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and if it's something I can talk about, I will, but I will always respond. What else? That's it. You did a pretty good job. Okay. thanks.

We'll see you, we'll see you after you Alex, age before beauty. We'll see you next week. ["The Daily News"] Experiencing the news each day can feel like a journey. With Up First from NPR though, it doesn't have to be. Welcome to 15 easy minutes of breaking news, clarity on international and national affairs, and a casual tone that you can take in with breakfast. Begin your day informed,

ready, and refreshed. Begin your day with Up First. Subscribe to Up First from NPR on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.