Do you grant yourself the opportunity to marvel at your own uniqueness?
Or do you find yourself regularly condemning the attributes and character traits that differentiate you from others?
Or do you perhaps find yourself secretly despising others for how different they are from what you have come to regard as normal.
Let’s take a little time today to reflect on your uniqueness and why you should celebrate it.
Nobody like you!
At last count there were, give or take, some eight billion people living on this planet. This is a staggering number.
If we didn’t know any better, the idea that we each have a hitherto undiscovered family of clones in some part of the world, would be quite easy to buy into, especially if we consider the legions that have gone before us.
And yet, each and every single one of us bears uniquely different fingerprints and a unique DNA blueprint.
Nobody exactly like you has ever walked the earth before. Likewise, nobody exactly like you will ever walk the earth again!
A cause for celebration?
That reflection should make us all feel incredibly special.
Through bestowing individual uniqueness, the creative power has signalled the significance that it attributes to each individual. We have been endowed with the ability to leave our very own unique imprint on this world.
Surely this incredible gift of uniqueness is worthy of our humility, respect and gratitude?
Surely this is a cause for great celebration?
Lack of tolerance
Why, then, is our world so riven by a lack of tolerance for different beliefs, values, opinions, affiliations, cultures, looks and behaviours.
It seems that we share a universal appreciation for diversity as it manifests in nature, and yet we have a real struggle when it comes to valuing the diversity that individual uniqueness imparts to our own human race.
Why so?
A matter of conditioning
I suggest the answer lies in the conditioning that we receive throughout our lives.
Our sense of what is ‘normal’ is derived from our parents, our education systems, our communities and the nations in which we reside and with which we are encouraged to identify.
Commercialism, too, plays a very powerful role in instilling into each of us how we should look, what we should buy, what we should consume and how we should behave.
Conformist behaviour and manipulation
Despite our individual uniquenesses we share a strong human need for connection; a need that drives us to try to ‘fit in’ with those we identify most closely with, and suppresses any natural inclination we may have to stand out or be different.
Political, commercial and other vested interests know this full well, and use it to take advantage, by encouraging us to ‘fit in’ with the way of life, the products, the services and the campaigns that they promote and prescribe.
Those who have the courage to follow their own convictions, when they differ markedly from what is regarded as the ‘norm’, quickly attract attention.
They may be treated with ridicule, ire and even outright hostility by conformists, who are egged on by those in power or those with a vested interest in perpetuating the ‘norms’ that they have worked to establish.
I believe this desire to conform, manipulated as it often is by powerful vested interests, goes to the heart of the lack of tolerance that I referred to previously and that we experience all too frequently in this world.
A rather ironic solution
Ironically, I suggest that the solution to this problem lies in considering the flip side of the coin, so to speak.
We cannot truly appreciate, embrace and celebrate our uniqueness as members of the human race until we accept and embrace our sameness!
Different, yet the same
At New Insights, we like to say this:
Our sameness is rooted in our common purpose to grow, develop and contribute to the positive evolution of our planet, for the benefit of future generations and the universe as a whole.
Our primary difference is rooted, not in our nationality, race, creed, language or gender but in the unique gift or innate talent that we bring to bear in helping to further the common purpose.
Freedom to express
Provided that our honest intention is to create the best version of humanity, and leave the world a better place for all, then we should each be granted the respect and freedom to express and/or use our wonderful individual uniqueness in whatever way we feel we can contribute most effectively.
By learning to respect, love and embrace what it is that makes us unique – and how powerful our uniqueness can be in helping shape our world – we will begin to recognise, appreciate and celebrate this in others.
Celebrate your incredible uniqueness
In closing, I invite you to break out and celebrate your incredible uniqueness!
Awesome thank you
Thank you for this invitation, Bill. The first time I was introduced to this powerful concept by a motivational speaker at a corporate event, I was filled with astonishment, as no one had ever pointed it out to me before. It radically altered my perspective, made me feel so empowered and motivated to pass this message on to as many people as I could. How grateful I am, that my Higher Power created the opportunity for me to become a life coach, a career in which I can fulfil this mission.
How wonderful Karen … go to it!
This is brilliant, I love it!
Thank you 🙂