We have all heard the saying, be yourself, everyone else is already taken, but how many of us live by that motto? It’s nice in theory, but who wants to stand out or rock the boat in their family? Who wants to be the center of attention and get judged for being different? YOU DO! I promise you that being yourself will make you feel alive in a way that you have never felt, and any negative things that come with it will be a small price to pay for embracing your differences and being yourself.
5 Reasons To Embrace Your Differences And Be Yourself
1. It Will Help You Achieve A Life Vision That’s Satisfying To You
This is the big one! If you do not embrace your differences and allow yourself to be who you want to be, then you are not going to be able to dig down and understand what you want out of life and then act on it.
A lot of people get stuck in a life that isn’t satisfying to them because they won’t allow themselves to embrace what makes them unique and then live a life in accordance to their personal desires and beliefs.
I found that Lifebook was a great challenge to help me dig down into my current desires and allow myself to be more of who I am knowing that it’s the only way I will end up living a satisfactory life.
Once you dig down deep enough and let your true self shine through, you start living day to day in accordance with who you really are, and it feels so satisfying that you won’t be able to imagine living any other way.
2. You’ll Be Happier
Be happier. That’s one of the big goals in life, right?
Being authentic makes you happy. Partly it’s because you start to allow yourself to live life on your terms so you are constantly doing things that uplift your spirit and keep you in a state of happiness.
What you need to remember is that if you can be yourself now, you are going to affect your future happiness too. This article, written by Stephen Joseph Ph.D., author of Authentic: How to be yourself and why it matters, talks about a study where participants had to recall and write about a situation where they were either authentic or inauthentic, and then complete a happiness test related to how they currently felt at the time of the study. The participants who recalled and wrote about being authentic were happier than the participants who recalled and wrote about being inauthentic.
3. Feel More Powerful
Living life behind a mask takes away your power. You can’t hold your head up high as the person you are. You are being who other people want you to be, and that makes you feel less powerful than you really are.
When you start to be yourself, you start to feel more powerful because you are able to make choices based on your beliefs, not other people’s beliefs. You start to see the influence you have over your life through your choices… choices that are based on what you want and what you deem to be right.
Don’t underestimate the power of choices. Every day you have choices, and those choices alone determine your tomorrow. They are the single most important thing that influences your life, and if you are not standing in your full power, you will continuously make choices that don’t fall in line with who you are and what you want.
4. Be Accepted
If no one every embraces their differences, then no one different will ever be accepted.
It’s human nature. Most of us like routine and think of things in a very linear way. We need to be exposed to things that are different in order to start to accept them. The more exposure we get, the more we see something ‘different’ as normal.
If you want people to accept you for who you are, you have to embrace your differences and show them who you are. The more you show them who you are, the more they will accept you for who you are. You will be the guy or girl who is different in certain ways, and that’s just the way it is.
For instance, there’s a guy in my town who dances while he walks. He walks pretty much all day with his headphones on, and he is constantly dancing in a way that most people wouldn’t even think of doing in public. He’s so noticeable he’s even gotten job offers to hold up signs for various companies and dance to bring attention to their business. At first, it was different. But now we just see him as the guy who likes to dance while he walks. It would be weird if he wasn’t here.
The bonus in embracing your differences is that there are other people with differences like you. The more you embrace your differences and put them out there for other people to see, the more other people with similar differences can embrace theirs and be accepted as well.
And, in the end, people like other people for their uniqueness. If someone is able to be themselves, then they are noticed as different or special and can be celebrated for the unique gift they have to offer the world.
5. Shift Your Energy To Do Better Things
Fighting yourself is exhausting. Seeking approval from others is exhausting.
When you are constantly unaccepting of your differences, you are constantly telling yourself that you are wrong in some way, and that causes you to judge yourself. Judging yourself and being insecure takes a lot of energy!
What if you could use that energy on something else? What could you create? What could you manifest? What could you do in your life towards your personal growth and happiness?
I challenge you to think of anyone who is successful and well-known who hasn’t embarrassed their differences. I haven’t found someone yet. They are able to put their energy towards making shit happen because they aren’t freaking out about what you or I think of their differences.
When you embrace your differences and allow yourself to be yourself, you can focus on using your energy to do great things. You can add your uniqueness into the world and help shift it in some way.
Even if you impact one person’s life with your ability to embrace your differences, you could impact the entire world in some way as that one person impacts someone else, and those people impact other people, and on and on. You could be the catalyst for great change simply because your energy was focused on doing great things and not hiding who you truly are.
Challenge Yourself To Be Unique On The Inside As Well As The Out
We all have one nose, two eyes, a mouth, a head, shoulders, arms, hips, knees, toes, etc. Yet, we all look different. Doesn’t that blow your mind! With the exception of twins and the occasional lookalikes, most people look completely different from each other despite having the same design from head to toe.
So why should our personalities, beliefs, habits, or visions be the same as everyone else?
Challenge yourself, starting today, to embrace your differences and be yourself. Tell people what you really think. Do what you really want to do. Be weird. Accept your body for what it is.
People who haven’t been able to embrace their differences may judge you. But that’s OK. You can stand in your power knowing that they are not able to do what you can do – live life on your terms, feel true happiness that comes from being yourself, or impact the world in a positive way.
Who knows? Maybe your example will help them let go and embrace their differences too.
How Do You Embrace Your Difference?
It’s very simple. You change your mindset about being different. You tell yourself that embracing your differences will allow you to live a happy, fulfilled, and rewarding life. And then you start to show your true self to you and to others.
The more you tell yourself that being yourself is a good thing, and the more you practice being yourself and embracing your differences, the easier it will be.
Start today.
Embrace both your physical and non-physical differences. They are supposed to be there. You are not meant to be like anyone else.
Embrace your differences. You are different. And those differences make you, you.
