Stand By Your Mojo
Never lose what makes you unique because in case you lose other things, your uniqueness would still stay.
As human beings, conforming is a trait that is quite dominating in us. Such is our programming that we have an inherent tendency to do what the person next to us is doing. It could be because we still have a few things common as monkeys, one of them being copying. However, the process of imitating someone else is something that might help sometimes, but mostly it would kill the uniqueness in you.
The problem of today’s age is what Irrfan Khan says in the role of a middle class employee in the movie Lunchbox, “The world has too many people and everyone wants what the other one has.” In order to become like the other one, we imitate them. We look at someone we admire and try to act, behave or worse sometimes even think like them. The more time we spend with someone, the more we become like them. While to some extent, this could prove to be beneficial where we get exposed to a good personality when we might become better by emulation. However, mostly copying does us great harm.
It may sound cliche, but what makes you unique is what makes you unique and that is supposed to be embraced. Every person who knows both me and my younger sister is surprised by the level of difference in personalities we possess. She is a carefree kid, while I take the pains to plan everything. She is never serious and I, hardly non-serious. I have a slight frown on my forehead always, I am always thinking, while she is a creative designer, free with her thoughts. She likes Netfix while I like books . When we visit a new place, I read about it as much as possible noticing peculiarities like a writer while she notices the colours, architecture and details like a designer. She chooses the paint brush while I, the writing pen. We have grown up in the same house, with same parents in a similar environment, yet we are so different. My point is that if I try to become like her, or she like me, we would both fail miserably because we carry different mojos. What is the need to copy then if both of us are like we are?
In the hyper-connected era of social media, where the social media dictates how we are supposed to look, travel, live or worse think it becomes all the more important to stay in touch with something that makes us unique. When we try to imitate someone else, we lose a part of us. That in my opinion is a double-edged sword. Any change that you make in yourself should be a result of your own contemplation of its pros and cons. It should not be guided by factors external to you. Stop worrying about what others would think of you, because that does not lie into your arena of control. Being true to just yourself is important, everything else can wait.
We are at our most authentic and happy, when we are being true to what we stand by, what we feel is right or wrong. The world today might be hyper-connected, but deep within, we are also disconnected and alone more than ever. The virtual connections might be there but physically most of us come home to just ourselves. If that self is a copied self, it would be really bad. You really need to keep at least some things about you unique. If something interests you just go for it, if it doesn’t don’t go for it. You only have one life, why waste it living in another person’s head?
You may reach out to me at sdshivanidubey@gmail.com.
