Embrace What Makes You Different to Make a Difference
John Mason, who wrote An Enemy Called Average, says most people are born originals but die copies.
We are now moving into a new decade where we have to begin to embrace what makes us different instead of fitting in to get along.
Gone are the days when you just show up and you do average work in an average time. Companies, businesses and organizations want people who embrace what makes them different so that they can make a difference. You don’t make a difference by doing more of the same.
Learn how to unlock the Magic in YOUR Mind!
Many years ago, I had just started out in the speaking industry, and I had been watching the likes of Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn and Les Brown—all of the great motivational speakers who were popular at that time. One day I recognized that when I got up to speak, I was just mimicking what I had heard and seen.
I was not an original voice. There was nothing different about me. I was more of the same. My audiences were not getting the best of me; they were getting a part of me, which was a need to fit in and not stand out.
My life changed when my mentor said to me, “You weren’t born to fit in; you were born to be brilliant.”
That became the combination that opened the vault of my soul from the inside out to recognize: a job is what you’re paid to do, but finding your SPARK is what you’re made to do.
When I embraced that, all of the sudden I woke up one day and said to myself, I no longer want to fit in. I no longer want to conform. I want to disrupt my world and go in the opposite direction of what everyone else is doing.
Here’s the deal: In this decade, when everybody is zigging, you choose to zag. When everybody is saying, “It’s got to be done this way,” be willing to stand up, be the odd person out and walk the opposite direction.
Learn how to unlock the Magic in YOUR Mind!
That’s where your freedom is.
Freedom is not being the “yes” person. It’s saying “no” to what doesn’t work for you, and “yes” to what wants to emerge. That’s how you make a difference.
At the beginning of the year, you set the tone for the rest of the year. Start thinking ahead now and ask yourself:
- What can I do right out the gate to set the tone for how I intend to be different and authentically myself for the rest of the year?
- Where in my life have I been mimicking others, and how can I instead begin to use my original voice?
- In what contexts can I anticipate I’ll need to zag when others zig?
Write it down, and return to your notes at least once per quarter. Ask yourself, Have I been embracing what makes me different?
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