SOMETHING ONLY YOU CAN DO FOR LIFE

Colorful flower motif design art - “Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.”

Tallulah Bankhead quipped, "Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it." But the truth is...we DO have trouble being ourselves, don't we? Especially in a world that wants us to conform. "To be nobody but yourself in a world that is doing its best day and night into making you like everybody else," said poet E. E. Cummings, "is to fight the hardest battle there is and never stop fighting."

One of the deepest cravings of young people, especially teens, is to be liked by their peers. They want to be accepted. Like all of us, they want to be valued. It's during those critical teen-age years, according to Earl Nightingale, that they begin to play a game called "Follow the Follower." The game is not the same as "Follow the Leader." Following the follower is about conforming...talking, dressing, acting and thinking like one another. Everyone follows everyone else.

In adulthood, we discover who we really are and do our best to grow into that person. We find our value, not in acceptance by others, but because we believe in our worth. It's a wonderful day when we can say in honesty, "I know who I am and I'm glad I am me."

The lovable children's author Dr. Seuss got it right when he wrote, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." It takes strength to swim against the tide. It takes courage to speak your convictions. It takes trust to act on your own intuitions. In the end, your success will always be a result of your being true to yourself rather than an imitation of somebody else.

You'll never have to give an account for not being more like your favorite celebrity, that shining star in your chosen field or anybody else. However, at the end of my life, the question I never want to be asked is, "How come you weren't more like you? You had such great potential. You were a wholly unique person -- an unrepeatable creation. Why you weren't more like you?"

Whatever your ambitions, your greatest success will be derived from your being the best YOU possible. In a world that wants you to conform -- be yourself. It's a challenging and rewarding job...and nobody can do it as well as you.

From Lifesupport.

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