Week 6 – Individuality
What is my true self?
Am I spending a lot of time on things that get me nowhere?
Am I engaging in destructive patterns of behaviour?
Am I following the crowd and conforming to the dictates of others?
Am I achieving nothing out of the ordinary?
True Self
There are certain traits and characteristics within ourselves that are just there. Their combination makes us unique. But we may not know they are there. We live our lives through these other false versions of our true self, whereas our true self is imaginative, positive and creative.
We have to discover what makes us unique. The parts of us that inspires us to move, to act, to achieve, to get better at things, to make a difference in our own life, to make a difference in other people’s lives. Our individuality.
From all the studies of great leaders there is clear evidence that they have common traits and characteristics that standout. They have one or two things that they are really good at, and lots of other things that they are not so good at. Great leaders are not well rounded. The most successful people who reach the peak in their chosen pathway are not generalists. They know what they are, and they know what they are not.
Famous and Unbalanced
A common trait of the likes of Gates, Jobs, Bezoz, and Musk is that they have tremendous vision and self-belief but they are anything but team players. Most of them wouldn’t even score well on emotional Intelligence or the ability to listen to other people. They are clever enough to surround themselves with other people who can deal with the things they are not so good at, who clear up the mess around them.
They are productive narcissists. They are effective precisely because they are unbalanced. They are unwilling to be deflected away from their strengths, things they are naturally good at.
No Need to Fit In
Humankind is the most specialised and differentiated of all the world’s species.
But we can unconsciously spend most of our lives oblivious to or denying our individuality. Trying to pretend that we’re just like everyone else. Even unconsciously trying to be someone else.
Our ultimate goal is to develop our creativity. To harness and align it to our natural strengths. Creative individuals are different to functional individuals. They use their individuality more.
They are more aware of it, give it more attention and cultivate it. They know instinctively where it can be used more effectively.
Creative individuals have less need to fit in, they make fewer concessions to reality as defined by other people.
If we want to create, we first have to discover and nurture our true self. We will then act effortlessly through harnessing what we are naturally good at. We have to do what we were born to do. Our inclinations may change as we evolve and shift priorities, but right now at this moment we have to do what feels right to us.