In a world that prefers conformity, it can be scary to dare to be different.
However, you’re created uniquely. To offer certain qualities and follow distinct interests so you can shine your brilliance like no other. But how is that possible?
Stay with me through this article and learn how to embrace your uniqueness and live your best life.
Let’s dive right into it.
1. Remind Yourself of the Importance of Uniqueness
Understanding the benefits of a certain change fuels you to go after the change. So, why do you want to dare to be different?
This is why you should strive to be your unique self:
- When you focus on being your true self, your energy flows to make you your best self
- Uniqueness is rare and therefore, valuable
- Standing out makes you interesting
- When you recognize your unique value, you can leverage it to bring a difference
- You inspire others through your authentic confidence
- Identifying what you want out of life would be easier and attainable
- You are powerful in your singular identity
- You attract genuine love
- Authenticity promotes happiness, studies suggest.
Authenticity may be tough to attain especially if you’ve been suppressing it for a while. However, one way to dare to be different is by reminding yourself constantly why you need to embrace your unique self.
2. Understand and Accept Diversities in Humanity
While affirmations work in helping you stay authentic, the most effective way to embrace the uniqueness you hold is by understanding and internalizing the foundation of self-esteem.
It’s obvious we’re all created to be different. But why?
Everyone has a purpose in this world and therefore, each of us is given qualities to help us fulfill that purpose. From physical attributes to personal experiences, nothing is a random useless occurrence.
Photo by Gabby K from Pexels
Some are meant to be thinkers, others strategists while on a different spectrum, some are built for leadership while others follow. Although society influences us to think we’re missing out on some roles and the people holding them are better than us, it’s not the case. If you strive to apply your abilities to what interests you, you’ll be applying your uniqueness and living your best life.
Therefore, strive to understand who you are and express yourself the best you can — no one else can beat you in that. If you need to fix problems rooted in your self-esteem, check out this Low Self-esteem Treatment Plan.
3. Deal With Your Story
Society teaches you to conform in many ways. Perhaps you grew up being told you aren’t enough compared to someone else. Or maybe you’re mistreated for your uniqueness be it personality, color, sense of fashion — you name it.
There are many voices and experiences thwarting your ability to nurture your unique self. Until you deal with them, you would either be building your confidence on a toxic, unstable foundation or fail to build anything at all.
Think of the reasons for your current behavior. Think of the lies that were planted in you. Dig up the psychological roots of the results you’ve attained throughout life. Face the things you buried and deal with them using the tips you get in this article.
4. Battle Your Fears
The fear of having a unique opinion. The fear of standing out. The fear of rejection. The fear of failure. The fear of missing out. What are you afraid of?
When daring to be different, you have to conquer the fears pulling you back to conformity. You have to get out there and express yourself. Whatever happens, know that fear is human but on the other side is an expression of your brilliant self.
5. Identify and Positivize What’s Unique About Youf
We may be almost halfway through the article yet you have a vague idea of what makes you unique. That’s why you need to grab a pen and paper for this exercise — no passivity.
Think deeply about what people say about you, how they criticize you, what excites you, the gifts you have that others struggle to attain (that’s your superpower), your unique story, your skills, and even quirky preferences.
Some of your uniqueness might have been criticized and misunderstood. Some of your traits might be labeled negative yet you don’t hurt yourself or others with them. Do a serious audit and cancel the lies you’ve been told and establish what’s unique about you.
If you want to embrace your identity yet think you can please everyone, you’ll ultimately fail. The truth is, whether you stand out or fit in, you can never please everyone. And you need to accept that.
If you practice being your true self and someone doesn’t like it, they aren’t meant to anyway. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a diverse world with multiperspective thinkers.
You’ll please some people and annoy others. Your guts would inspire some folks and intimidate others. Some you’ll agree with and others disagree. No matter what, stay your course, stand your ground.
6. Accept That You Can’t Please Everyone
If you want to embrace your identity yet think you can please everyone, you’ll ultimately fail. The truth is, whether you stand out or fit in, you can never please everyone. And you need to accept that.
If you practice being your true self and someone doesn’t like it, they aren’t meant to anyway. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a diverse world with multiperspective thinkers.
You’ll please some people and annoy others. Your guts would inspire some folks and intimidate others. Some you’ll agree with and others disagree. No matter what, stay your course, stand your ground.
7. Refuse to Follow Expectations That Aren’t You
You need to follow this career. You should have a family by the time you reach 30. You need to be a millionaire at the age of 40. Expectations exist right, left, and center. But are they yours?
In the process of becoming a unique you, you’ll realize you’ve been living other people’s expectations for years. It’s natural to feel frustrated, discouraged, or sad — you name it. However, no matter your age, there’s still hope. The realization that you’ve been on the wrong path is a powerful start in the right path.
Here’s how you let go of external expectations:
- Write your personal values
- List your life desires without editing
- Write what you expect from yourself
- Review your expectations and cancel those that aren’t yours
Your gut doesn’t lie so be honest with yourself. You’ll know an expectation isn’t yours if you keep assessing what others will think of you when you don’t follow it.
8. Accept and Love Yourself
None of these acts come easy so I don’t expect telling you to accept and love who you are will instantly make you feel so.
Firstly, know that you’re a work in progress. That whether you are proud, self-loathing, selfish, or whatever part of yourself you feel isn’t right, you’re not finished work yet. This will give you the strength to be accepting of your flaws and actually work on yourself unapologetically.
In the process, you’ll start realizing and internalizing truths about self-love hence guiding you to genuinely love your unique self wholly. This article on Hacks To Love Yourself Enough will help you understand, accept, and love yourself gradually and sustainably. You can also watch this video to learn to love yourself more:
9. Spend Time With Your Pack
“Surround yourself with the dreamers, and the doers, the believers, and thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.” Edmund Lee, Seasoned Journalist
When you’re striving to embrace who you are, you need to be in an environment that supports your uniqueness. This will help you amass the strength you need to be unapologetically unique.
For instance, instead of staying around people that make you feel your dreams are stupid, use that time to talk to like-minded individuals whether offline or online.
10. Express Yourself in Skills
Your uniqueness is seen in the things you do. When you do anything, people see an expression of your qualities in that skill.
Some people believe the academically talented (nerds) can’t be cool. Others believe being religious isn’t fun. For a long time, people have been told that they can’t be talented in sciences and arts at the same time. However, at the end of the day, whoever breaks the norms is considered unique.
Therefore, express yourself in your areas of interest to see the real you manifest. At first, people may discourage you but when they see you enjoy it, they join in your enthusiasm. Express you!
11. Get Comfortable With Criticism
You know you’ll always be criticized no matter what. Some critics might aim to correct you, others to destroy you, and sometimes, a little bit of both. That’s why you need to create a healthy relationship with criticism.
You need to establish in your mindset the fact that you need criticism to improve and become successful in the many things you do in life. When someone criticizes you for your uniqueness, understand that they don’t understand you and that’s okay. You can either choose to explain to them why you do what you do or you can move on saying nothing.
12. Turn Comparison to Inspiration to Achieve Your Success
Image by v-3-5-N-a from Pixabay
Humans are beings of reference so if you try to fight comparison, you lose. That’s why “just stop comparing” is the worst advice on the topic. It never works.
That said, you need to understand this: somewhere in your journey, you’ll compare yourself to other people. However, instead of desiring to be like everyone else, let their progress remind you that you’re different, have to walk your unique path, and deal with unique circumstances to get exceptional results at your unique time.
Always remember, the fact that other people are succeeding means you can do it too. Understand how to deal with comparison more in this article on Compare & Despair.
13. Regard Self-Accountability Highly
To succeed in daring to be different, you must be honest with yourself. You have to stop acting a certain way so others can think of you in a certain manner and start doing things that you’re proud of.
You have to desire to end the day saying “I’m proud of myself.” Not because you did things perfectly but because you tried your best to be authentic and made a little progress.
If you develop a highly self-accountable mindset, you’ll not only improve but become unstoppable.
Understanding Uniqueness
Here’s a sneak peek into the answers to common questions clients ask about uniqueness and authenticity.
What is your uniqueness as a person?
Your uniqueness as a person is what makes you stand out from others whether it’s small or significant. What makes us unique is a complex novel interconnection of our habits, circumstances, attitude, talents, and even physical qualities which shape our view of life.
How do you show your uniqueness?
You show your uniqueness by simply being yourself, following your interests using your abilities, and living a life of your own design. I talk about this more in the following video:
Why is it important to embrace your uniqueness?
You need to be unique so you can perform your purpose and lead a fulfilling life. The world needs you with your amazing qualities and flaws so they can learn from you and get to love you the way you are.
Conclusion
We don’t need a perfect copy of anyone we know. We need you to be you, to love you for you, and derive inspiration from you. Therefore, remember the above strategies and continue becoming your unique self.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my guide. Share this piece with a friend to help them too!
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