Looking back on our lives, I think we can all recall times when we’ve made efforts to blend in.
To fit in.
It starts as a child, way before we realize what’s happening.
Elementary, middle, high school.
Even college and into the workplace.
We all just want to fit in.
Have friends.
Be “normal”.
It has to be in our DNA to want to fit in.
A survival mechanism that self selected it’s way into humanity.
What’s crazy about this is not the phenomenon itself, but the irony of it.
The irony of our admiration for people and ideas that are “different”.
Even Steve Jobs saw the value in this idea demonstrated by Apple’s “Think different.” motto.
So we admire and aspire to be like these “different” world shapers, yet our innate survival impulse is to quietly blend in?
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When we walk on a beach, we often look down at our feet making prints in the sand.
What do we notice?
Do we notice the single grain of sand next to our big toe?
Or do we notice the purple sea shell 3 feet to our left?
Difference, not size or proximity, is what makes us notice the sea shell.
And this makes me wonder:
Why do we try so hard to be like sand, when we could be our own shell?
What might we be, dream, create, or change?
I guess that’s for some to wonder and few to find out.