Why different is difficult?

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You laugh at me because I'm different,
I laugh at you because you're all the same.
Jonathan Davis

We have a love-hate relationship with different. We love the idea of being different, but we hate the process of becoming different. Why is it so hard for us to embrace our uniqueness?

Our thoughts and actions are connected to our thinking processes. It is easy to do something different for a season, but making a permanent change requires us to open the vault that contains our thinking processes. This is when most people walk away from change.

Most of us were educated in environments that rewarded compliance. We were given assignments and graded on our ability to provided acceptable results. Little by little, we were normalized. Sameness was rewarded. Different went to detention.

As we moved from high school to young adulthood, the pressure to fit in increased. We craved acceptance so we squelched any thoughts that suggested we were different. Over the years, we pushed our uniqueness into the cracks and crevices of our minds. Being different still doesn't appeal to us.

Now, we see people who have embraced their uniqueness. We understand we have the capacity to be different, but we stick with the known. When given the opportunity to choose between a predictable outcome rooted in familiar thinking and an uncertain outcome rooted in new thinking, we choose the familiar. We are fans of being different. We just aren't brave enough to make the leap.

Doing something different is still the desire of most Americans. The AARP reports that only 15% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs. So, there are 85% of them who desperately want something different. You might be one of them.

Different won't come knocking on your door. You must pursue it. If you don't pursue different, the future is predictable. Think about it.

What keeps you from doing something different?

Are you wondering how to find the best version of you? Check out Live Your Why and the Live Your Why Online Seminar. I am currently leading the seminar and am providing an online experience for those who can't make it to the sessions. Click here to learn more about participating in the online seminar.

Tags: Live, Online, Why, Your, different, thinking

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Comment by Terry Hadaway on February 14, 2013 at 9:30am: Adam and Lesley, I agree! The more we embrace our uniqueness, the more we must wrestle with our natural desire to fit in and be like everyone else. Unfortunately, many people who could make a big difference in our world are shackled to their computers worried about Facebook "friends" and Twitter "followers." As long as we do what everyone else is doing, we can expect to be just like everyone else. Last I checked, everyone else was still letting life happen to them. We can blaze a trail or head back to town, but the trail doesn't lead to where the masses already are.

Comment by Lesley Sobeck on February 13, 2013 at 6:40pm: I've found that being different isn't too successful until you really feel confident in yourself. As soon as you leave the status quo and someone comments on it negatively, you'll revert right back to the norm unless you have a solid sense of self and purpose.

Comment by Adam Rico on February 12, 2013 at 10:11pm: This is great Terry. Yes, being different sounds good until you try to be different. Thanks for the encouragement to all of us who don't always fit into the status quo.