In this present day, there is a constant pressure on people to fit it. This can come from social expectations, peer pressure, cultural norm, societal expectations. At this point, daring to be yourself has become a great virtue. I once followed a social media post some months back where a particular influencer introduced a trend. The trend started going like wildfire. A lot of people joined the trend without even thinking about it, all in the name of chasing clout and following the trend, just like "herd mentality." This is just to tell you how conformity has eaten deep into the fabrics of our society. However, what people should be made to understand is that progress, impact, and purpose are not born out of imitation, but by daring to be different.
Being yourself in a world like this is not as easy as it may appear to be. It requires a strong will to stand firm even when your values come under heavy pressure from popular opinions. For example, in your place of work, where others are going through shortcuts and cutting corners, and even celebrated by others, it takes an extensive amount of courage to be able to be different. You will be surprised how a lot of people have sidelined their true values, not because they are not gifted nor do they lack vision, but because they fear being rejected. What they fail to understand is that the consequences and price of fitting in, is far greater than the cost of standing out. Each time you abandon who you are, you lose the very thing that actually makes life meaningful for you.
That everyone is doing it, and that it has been the norm, does not mean that you should do it. You need to take a stand to stand out, be different, do things differently, be outstanding. If you do what everyone else is doing, how will you be different from everyone else? It is when you have broken off from the norm and when you attempt to do things differently that you will actually become different. If things are going in certain way, you need to take a stand to be different. Even the great innovators and inventors of history all made a choice to do things differently. You can only make a difference when you attempt to chat a new course and blaze the trail.
I once read about how the invention of the stethoscope came to be. Everyone in the medical field now uses stethoscope to listen to heartbeat. Before the invention, doctors and other medical personnel would just place their ears on the chest of the patient and then listen to the heartbeat. It was the norm then until René Laennec decided to do something differently. He was a doctor too, but instead of him to continue with the norm of listening directly, he told himself that something should be created that can help them listen with ease. That was the idea surrounding it. He moved with the idea, and that was how the stethoscope was invented. If he had not been different, we may probably have been stuck with the old method of placing the ears on the heart to hear the beat.
To be different, you have to be yourself. You were not built to become a copy of someone else but an original version of yourself. It is true that people may motivate and inspire you, but you should not submerge yourself in their shadows. You will agree with me that no two humans, no matter how identical they may look, have the same fingerprint. In the same way, each one has a different purpose, and a different pathway to destiny. When you suppress your purpose just to fit into someone else's plan, you will delay your destiny. Your success is not a function of the standards of others, but a function of running your own race in your own track and making it to the finish line. If you run in someone else's track, you may miss the prize.
Every great agent of change that the world has ever known were once labelled to be different. They were often misunderstood, and even reviled, but it did not step them from being outstanding. At the end, they were celebrated. The world does not need more of copies, it actually needs originals. You do not need to be loud, you do not need to make noise, you just need to be yourself. When you become yourself, the contributions you make becomes irreplaceable. If you can be easily replaced, then you need to do something different. You should get to a point that if you are not there, your absence should be felt. Remember that the courage to dare to be different is not a gift, rather it is a choice that you must make individually.
Thanks for reading
