Have
you ever dreamt that were someone else, perhaps a colleague at work who is
doing extremely well or maybe a famous/rich politician with significant
influence or power? If you answered yes, you are not alone; at some point in
time in our lives most of question our own identify and wonder what could be if
we were someone else. While it is normal to ask yourself this question at some
point in your life, this blog will attempt to convince you why you need to
dispel that notion and accept yourself with all your personality traits.
Let
us start by understanding the external pressures of why the world wants to erase
“you” and replace “you” with someone else, remember that you live in a planet
with a few billion people and technically you are part of a large collective
that we called humanity. The collective has strong interests that are being
influenced by key people in our society, for example politicians want voters to
completely buy-in into their agenda and not only vote for them but convince
other voters to vote for them as well. The military, one of the largest
employees worldwide, is based on the premise that you need to follow orders and
more closely at home, whoever you live with, most likely have also tried to
change some aspects of your personality as well.
Now
that we understand some of the external pressures, let us explore why it is
important that you stay true to yourself. Imagine that all the people in the planet
are puzzle pieces if we were all the same, nobody could assemble the puzzle as
for the pieces to fit together they have to be different so they can interlock
in place.
Further,
let us take something as a sports team, pick your favorite, soccer, cricket,
football, basketball, it does not matter. What matters is that the sport is
played by a team and each individual on that team plays a different role, which
is an important and required position. Just imagine if out of the 11 players on
a soccer field all of them were the goalie, who would score the goals and
defend the mid-field? We need the diversity in our lives as much as the soccer
game needs each individual to play its assigned role.
Let everyone
of us, put this in the context of work, family and friends. What is it that
each of us uniquely brings to the table and would be missed if you were to
become somebody else. In case you have trouble picturing this set of qualities,
I want to make a reference to the popular “Lego” movie. For those of you who
saw it, you will remember Emet. Emet was a happy construction worker who
enjoyed life one day at a time, while his friends thought he was not special,
he turned out to really be the chosen one, coming-up with ideas that literally saved
day that not even the master builders of the movie were able to come up with.
In conclusion,
each of us brings something unique that we might not be realized it until there
is a need for it. It is an irreplaceable gif that is unique to each of us which
in turns contributes to make the world a better place.
