He who walks in another’s tracks leaves no footprints. Joan L. Brannon
What makes the human race unique is that each of us has within us an ego which makes us crave attention, seek recognition and express our individuality. In this process we are often tempted to idolize people and imitate our role models for they have set the benchmark for us to emulate. While the role model plays an important part in motivating us and helping us focus, when we get obsessed with the role model we end up mimicking that person and over a period of time we turn out to be clones of that person and our individuality gets suppressed.
Other times we are so over awed by the larger than life image of someone we adore, respect or fear that we blindly follow his/ her dictates and we unconsciously imbibe the traits, mannerisms and behavior of that person. With very rare exceptions we normally do not assimilate the thought process of that person and so while our external gyrations and behavior closely resemble another, the effectiveness of our action will come under a cloud for the rationale and reasoning would be very suspect. Larger than life figures normally leave behind a huge vacuum at their demise partly because they haven’t groomed proper successors and partly because they leave behind a very tough act to follow.
To leave a mark and show our individuality it is imperative that we recognize our own strengths and weakness and work within the frame work of that reality. Obviously we must leverage our strength and work to minimize or eliminate our weakness. Most of us prefer the easy path of imitating or attempting to duplicate the actions of those who have been successful. This might work for some time but it will always remain an area of concern for us because the action is not something that has been originally thought out by us. In the process of carving out your own niche, it is very possible that you would encounter resistance, self doubts and failure but then it also teaches one to be humble, gives us a firsthand lesson and above all we learn to take responsibility. This is the inflection point where the disciple becomes the master.
When we walk on our own feet and furrow a new path, which is when we grow mentally, physically and emotionally. Even more significantly there would be a unique set of footprints that would stand out and that would be as unique as our own signature.
Remember: “You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It’s your life.” Ethan Embry
Try this:
- Identify 3 people whom you do not share a great rapport with but with whom you have to deal often. List out 5 strengths of each of them and 2 reasons why you dislike them. Would you say that those people have their own individuality despite what you feel about them? Can you list out 5 strengths and 2 weaknesses for yourself?
- If there are 3 things that you want to improve in you what will they be? Draw up a plan that is practical to achieve your target and set an end date for you to achieve your target by. Now starting tomorrow work on it and periodically review your progress. Eg My target is to write one post a day for 365 days starting 1st Jan 2010 and as of date I have managed it; this being my 154th post.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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