Being Me All The Time

Think about this question posed by Rachel Pedersen in her great book, Unfiltered: Proven Strategies To Start And Grow Your Business By Not Following The Rules: “What if I decided to be me all the time?” Now, really reflect on that question. For example, I usually live by the rule of not wearing a tie on days of the week that end in the letter “y”. That’s every day, by the way. But, there are times that I wear a tie. Why? Because everyone else will have one on. So, Rachel has us questioning why we do that to ourselves. Again, what if we decided to be ourselves all the time? How many times do we do something because of some social norm? There is a lot of imitating that goes on in this world. And, that imitating involves envying others, too. What if we really started being ourselves ALL the time? What if we, as leaders, made space for others to be themselves and show their creative selves all the time?

For the most part I think I’m pretty good at being me, but there are those moments where I find myself conforming. I already mentioned the tie thing. This is where Rachel also taught us that, “professionalism is killing creativity.” So true! I have, no surprise, been told to tone it down before. Just how does one do that? Pretty hard for a guy like me that gets “giddy” over the smallest of things. Rachel even talks in her TED Talk about being given the advice to “dull her sparkle.” I like sparkle!!! She asks the question: “Who decides what is right?” The point here is, what if we were always ourselves? We are all packaged a little differently and we need to make sure we appreciate all those differences. Let’s all try to make a little more space for others to be themselves all the time.

Byron's Babbles