“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
― George S. Patton Jr
The title may lead you to think this is going to be a post that guarantees overnight success by encouraging you to be unconventional for the sake of being unconventional. Afraid not. If you want that type of post the web is full of examples, good and bad, and I bid you a happy and productive day.
What this post is, is an invitation.
An invitation to celebrate and, if necessary, reclaim your ability to think independently.
An invitation to celebrate having a slightly different view on the world if that’s you.
An invitation to reconnect with you.
Disengage from the Herd Mentality
As adults it’s so easy to become socially conditioned. Socially conditioned to accept the theories of others as fact. To accept hand me down ideals and secondhand information and absorb it all as if it was in fact our own.
We live in a copy and paste culture occupied with its fair share of copy and paste people.
These copy and paste types are numerous. They move in herds. They play follow the leader while actually thinking they are the lead. They like to claim any good ideas along the way as their own. Blowing their own trumpets. Celebrating their brilliantness. Promising much but delivering on little. Talking lots but saying nothing.
It’s the way to get ahead don’t you know?
It’s easy to become part of this herd if we’re not careful.
Moving in a herd has its benefits of course. It makes us feel safe. It makes us feel part of the gang.
But what if being in the herd is not really us at all?
What if it means we feel stifled? Not quite right. Like something’s always just a little off.
Tread Your Own Path
Perhaps instead we choose to tread our own path.
What if we looked at the horizon and felt a sense of wonder and adventure?
What if we set our inner compasses on a journey of our own making?
What if we aligned our actions and priorities with what’s really important to us?
What if we gave up on “I’m too busy” and instead focused on making time for the important and dropping the not so important?
What if we committed to really seeking our own paths? To learning from others but staying true to ourselves along the way. Staying true to who we want to be. Committing to seek and appreciate all the goodness along the way.
Isn’t that worth separating from the crowd for?
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