By Jim Koury, Editor/Publisher, Diversity Rules Magazine
© 2014 Diversity Rules Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
www.diversityrulesmagazine.com
When we are born we are completely unwired and untouched by life’s prejudices and societal mores. We have a clean slate upon which to write our life’s plan to discover the inherent personal greatness that lays deep inside each and every one of us. We enter this world the same as everyone else. It is the choices we make when we begin to embark upon our life’s journey that will determine if we stay the same as everyone else or if we take paths less trodden and seek to discover the real person we are meant to be that is buried deep inside of us.
Unfortunately most people do remain the same as everyone else. They comply with society’s dictates and succumb to peer pressure as well as to the socio-economic pressures that prod some to live lives that are not truly theirs. They are content to traverse life on paths that everyone else uses equipped with clear directions on how to proceed. It is engrained in the minds of those who remain the same as everyone else to take the safe bet, the sure thing and the most secure alternatives that don’t involve any level of risk.
Conversely there are people who reject this pressure to conform and be like everyone else. They are constantly taking risks and trying different things when it suits them. They are spontaneous and have a sense of adventure inherent in their thinking that guides them away from the most trodden paths. They make their own paths even though the landscape along that path may be riddled with uncertainly and risk.
Those that do not conform and stay like everyone else are many times accused of being strange and off center. They are not to be taken seriously and won’t really amount to anything because they have no direction, no clear goals or vision on where they want to be and don’t embark on the paths that are molded by others’ perceptions of being the best course to take.
We all have the ability to be strange. Even those that have remained in the shallow end of the river all their lives, always afraid to go out beyond the walkable part of the river bed that is safely felt by their feet below. Embrace the strangeness. Do not be afraid to swim in the deep part of the river or walk off in a direction that others might not think to be the safest. Take a risk. Take a chance and believe in your ability to weather any challenge that is placed in front of you.
It is those that test their abilities in ways unthinkable to the person that chooses not to look outside their comfort zone that will most often achieve personal greatness beyond their wildest expectations. They become aware much more quickly that the answer to many of their questions about the meaning of their life lays inside themselves. They begin to awaken to the influences of the unseen power of the universe to take them on journey’s of self-exploration that will unlock the doors to rooms that contain the answers being sought out.
Be proud of your strangeness for it is that which serves as the catalyst to move forward to look beyond our self-imposed comfort zones and not look back to more secure times for answers. The answers we seek lay outside the boundary of our comfort zone. The stranger we can be the further away from our comfort zone we jettison ourselves.
The next time you hear someone call you strange or mock you for marching to the tune of your own drummer, just look at them, smile and say, “I embrace my strangeness for it is what defines me and drives me to areas of life that I normally would never even thought to explore and consider.”
So yes, be strange. Embrace your strangeness and never let it go.
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