Being Different

May 12, 2011 · Posted in Self Improvement · Comment

Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)

Many people spend a great deal of effort trying to express their “individuality”. I think it’s a strong Western cultural theme: “Don’t be a sheep. Stand out from the norm. Be unique.” Obviously some go so far to be different that they purposely avoid things they may enjoy or deny themselves experiences they too want to feel simply because they perceive too many others act and feel the same way and they want to be different.

What does trying to be different really do for you? Isolate you? Make you feel resentment towards others for being “sheep”? Make you resent yourself for being on the “outside”?

It’s ok to be like others. In most ways, you can’t avoid it. No matter how hard you try, you still have to breathe air. You still have to eat food and drink water. You still have to sleep. Just like everyone else. You are human (yes, even you who fantasize about being mythical or supernatural beings like vampires, etc) and as such you are very much part of the herd. A sheep will be a sheep and even if it’s sheared and stands by itself away from the others, it’s still a sheep. It’s ok to like the same things others like. It’s ok to do something you might have fun doing even if everyone else is doing it as well.

Being a non-conformist does not mean you can’t do what others are doing. It means you can’t do what others are doing because they are doing it. This may be an often overlooked concept. In fact, if you change your actions or views based on the actions or views of someone else, that is the epitome of conformity. So in essence, dressing a certain way because nobody else is dressing that way is allowing your motive be based on other people’s actions.

You can be an individual and still be part of the crowd. Being an individual means doing what you want. If it happens to be what others want too, so be it. If you try too hard to be different, you end up being controlled by others as much as if you tried really hard to be the same.

Live how you want. Experience what you want. Feel what you want. Not because it’s what other people like and not because it’s what they don’t.

Tags: <confomity, individuality>