I’ve been told recently that I don’t conform to standards. That particular comment was passed on by someone who was attempting to get me to stay within the bounds of their reality and it was delivered with censure.

I took it as a compliment and all the censure they applied to the message was ignored while I thanked them sincerely for the compliment and listened to them explain that in their eyes it wasn’t a compliment.

I did however question the “standards” they mentioned and found that they had accepted them without question as “normal society standards” .

So my question today is: do you conform because you feel you have to or do you do it because it feels right or have you even given it any serious thought?

There is a quote that was a “lightbulb moment” for me:

“People spend their lives trying to fit in, when they are born to stand out?”

And that pretty much sums up how I feel about life. I love being unique! I love the fact that nobody else on the planet thinks the exact same way that I do and I no longer spend my time worrying about how I am going to fit into somebody else’s mould.

Yes there are certain “standards” that may have to be met, but for the most part I can live my life, my way and without many limits imposed on me by others.

I frequently say and genuinely mean it when I do:

“You only get one life, this isn’t a dress rehearsal where you’ll get a chance to come back and fix all the things you don’t like about your life. You’ve got to do it now, because it is the ONLY life you’ve got. Live it your way and don’t let anyone else hold you back or make you live within their boundaries if it doesn’t suit you.”

It continually surprises me the amount of people that find excuses for not living their life to their fullest potential. They have jobs, mortgages, children, debts, in fact the list goes on and on.

The really sad part of all of that is they are simply excuses thrown up as a shield to block the discomfort of stepping out of someone else’s imposed standards which hold them back. I have first hand experience of this with the clients I see.

They tell me the things that they want and when I ask what is stopping them getting what they want, they list off all their excuses. When I ask them what they would do if they knew they couldn’t fail or that no one could stop them they start reel off a completely different list of possibilities.

I do what I do because it is something that I feel strongly about, not because it is “right” according to others, because it is right to me. Others get the benefit of what I do because I do it with passion and give it my best effort.

I don’t let anyone or anything hold me back from being my best me. Isn’t it time you stopped holding back and became your best you?