You were born unique—you know this.
The world, however, is going to fight to make you interchangeable—it’s better for business.
What’s better for your business is fighting for your uniqueness.
Which, worth mentioning, is usually everything you feel like saying and doing but hesitate on because it’s not what everybody else is doing.
…In this sense of the word: start to perceive hesitation differently.
Use it as a signal to lean in versus back out.
Hesitation to do something that is so completely you is something that deserves that same pause… that same deep breath… that same “dancing-with-the-nerves” mentality that fear elicits right before you step into big, outside-the-comfort-zone moments.
…Because that’s exactly what being unapologetically yourself sometimes feels like!
And just like those moments before you have to give a public presentation, or perform in a “game-on-the-line” situation, or ask out that cute person who gives you butterflies… and you calm yourself down enough to lean in with your most physiologically ready self…
…So, too, should we learn to do that when hesitating on self-expression.
Doing the same as everybody else might feel like the safe bet, but in many ways it’s one of the greatest risks.
Same look, same skills, same résumé isn’t safe in today’s world… it’s easily interchangeable. And more importantly, sacrificing chances to realize more truly who you are is an opportunity you don’t always get back—there’s no second life for do-overs.
So wear those weird clothes. Mix together unconventionally mixed concepts. Write about super niche topics that you feel inexplicably drawn to.
…These may prove to be some of the most important path-changing, energy-recalibrating, tribe-attracting moments of your life.