Dare To Be Different

The German philosopher, Rollo May, quoted modern man as saying,
"I'm just a collection of mirrors, reflecting what everyone else expects of me."

Many people allow other's mediocre expectations of them to become their reality.

Don't be afraid to be different!
Take advantage of your difference and make it work for you.
Make your own way!

An excellant example of making your own way would be Taylor Hicks' strategy for playing the American Idol game.

From 'Heart Full Of Soul' by Taylor Hicks
(An inspirational memoir about finding your voice and finding your way)

"From the beginning my main focus was turning my biggest disadvantage into an advantage.
The undeniable truth is that by nearly every standard, I didn't fit in.
I was older, fatter, and I had gray hair.
So I decided the smart thing to do was embrace my oddness for all it was worth ... like they say, vive la difference."



The soulful music that saved Taylor Hicks as a young man, and gave him the dream of making his own music, soulful music ... also allowed him to stand out from the pack.

"Soul music spoke to me, it is the music of healing, music that brings people together, and I believed I had a voice to share.

As embarrassing as it sounds to say, I felt special, as if I were born for one purpose - to sing and entertain people who were going through their own journeys and troubles."

Bingo ... The answer to why 63.4 million votes were cast, and why Taylor Hicks became the new (2006) American Idol.

"To sing to the whole world, you've really got to do it one person at a time.
Singing from your soul isn't about how many notes you can hit, or how long you can hold them.
It's all about intimacy and honesty.
It's about sharing your story in a song."

Taylor Hicks made his differences work for him.
He capitalized on what he called his oddness, and it gave him the opportunity to realize his dreams.
His voice was finally being heard.

Is your voice being heard?



Each of us are originals, we are not meant to be carbon copies of our parents, our siblings or our peers.
It is up to each of us to find our own special abilities and talents and capitalize on them.
Children often learn through mimicing, and too often continue down the same path through life.



I recently found this question posed on a teen forum ...

Do you think too many people copy off others and don't try to go down their own path.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Yes and no, conforming to social norms helps to gel us together as a society and is also often the easiest option, and when given the choice people often take the easiest path open to them.

On the other hand it does encourage stagnation and a lack of thought ... hopefully there will always be a few people willing to think outside the box and shake things up for the rest of us sheep, then we can follow them and conform to a whole new system of norms.

Simply put, there may not be a single one of us who is not in some way guilty of copying others. (If you work a 9-5 job, that's all it takes to prove my point.)

But I guess we could be a bit more original.

Unfortunately society seems to award copiers.

Why else does the #1 selling song in the country sound merely identical to 5 others songs in the top 10?


Why, indeed.



The choice is yours ...
Do you march to a different drummer?
Have you followed your own star?