Changing Oneself (Recorded)

I had a student ask me one time; Should you change yourself to match others because you are considered weird?

This one was an easy answer for me. No. You were made who you are the way you are for a reason. I have lived my entire life being considered weird by what felt like everyone around me, and for a little while I tried to be “normal”. It was a disaster. I didn’t make more friends, and the people I did manage to gather around me were not real friends at all. I couldn’t blame them, I was being fake so I deserved to gain fake friends. That’s the biggest problem with changing who you are. You end up with a life that drains you of life, because all of your energy is used up trying to be what others want you to be and trying to then maintain that lie. Not worth it.

If there were ever moments when I was great at what I did as a teacher, it was because of who I am, not who I pretend to be.

Your greatest accomplishments, your best friendships will only come from your authentic self. Man, I sound like a self-help book, and not the good kind. But seriously, your “weirdness” is what makes you great. The world needs you, exactly the way you are. Well, maybe you have room for improvement, we all do. But improving yourself and changing yourself are two different things. For example what the smartphone is, a handheld multi-functional piece of technology has not changed. What has changed is what it can do and how well it can do it. It has improved, but has not changed from its primary function and purpose. I know this is an oversimplification, but bear with me. My point is that you should look to improve yourself, not try to change who you are (unless you are a cannibal in which case I would encourage you to change one thing about yourself).

Will you be everyone’s cup of tea? Of course not. But even if only %1 of the world’s population accepted you, that is still well over a million people. Steve Jobs was weird, George Washington was weird, Aristotle was weird, Hirohito Araki is weird. But what they created, what they did impacted thousands if not millions of lives.

Don’t waste your time blending in, you’re not an ice cube.

I hope this was useful, feel free to send me any other random questions that pop into your brain.

Time for your next adventure,

I’ll miss you