This article was last updated on March 14, 2022
Have you ever noticed how much people tend to think alike, act alike, dress alike, and behave alike? Have you ever noticed how much alike we all are?
It’s a global culture.
People across this country and even around the world drive the same cars, live in similar houses, listen to similar music, stay hip to the same dance crazes, and talk the same lingo.
Fitting in, following the crowd, joining the mainstream, and keeping up with the Joneses is the default way of life for us all. Everybody wants to fit in with what everybody else is doing.
Fitting in is okay to a certain extent. It’s okay to keep up with what’s going on in the world. But nothing can ever be as important as BEING YOURSELF.
Being yourself is the only way to truly fulfill your deepest potential for happiness, success, passion, and purpose. Because greatness is never achieved by following what everybody else is doing.
Greatness can only be accomplished by relentlessly and uncompromisingly being yourself at all costs.
The following are 4 Ways To Forget Fitting In And Relentlessly BE YOURSELF:
#1- Stop Watching Television So Much
We all live the same houses, drive similar cars, listen to the same music, watch similar movies, buy the same products, and chase similar goals.
Who teaches us how to fit in? Where do we learn this indoctrination that motivates us to follow the crowd?
The answer is: television.
According to a recent New York Daily News article, the average American watches more than 5 hours of television per day.
5 hours.
We are wasting one-fifth of our twenty-four-hour days on sitting in front of our televisions.
And the sad part is almost one-fourth of television is purely advertising. That’s right. According to data from 2013 reported by The Los Angeles Times, commercials account for 14 minutes and 15 seconds of every hour of television that you watch. That means almost one-fourth of television is designed to hypnotize us into buying a product, joining a campaign, fighting for a cause, or taking an action.
Roughly one-fourth of everything you watch on television is purely brainwashing. And you could definitely argue that the remaining three-fourths of television is also designed to brainwash us—especially network news.
Television is the medium that teaches us about the world, coaches us on what’s cool, and instructs us on how to fit in the crowd. Television indoctrinates us on how to fit in.
But look on the plus side. The choice of how many hours you spend per day locked in to your TV is completely up to you.
You can decide to use your time on a habit that sucks up your time, drains your mental energy, and trains you to be like everyone else. Or you can choose to say no to TV and focus on habits that will actually boost your growth, happiness, or success.
The choice is completely yours.
#2- Unplug From Social Media
On top of television, there’s another popular platform that may actually be a lot worse than TV in terms of how much it indoctrinates us to be like everyone else: social media.
Not only are we spending 5 hours a day on television, but—according to a recent Marketing Charts article—the average American also spends 3.2 hours per day on social media.
As far as brainwashing us to keep up with the Joneses, social media is incredibly dangerous. Because sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat allow you to keep up with what others are doing—people that you’re close to and people that you look up to—twenty-four-hours a day and night.
It’s human nature to want to socialize and keep up with what others are doing around you. So it’s hard to say no to social media. That temptation to log in to browse through the latest updates on your timeline is powerful. And it’s always there.
But like television, the solution to this problem is simply to unplug yourself. And go devote your time to activities, places, habits, and people that will actually feed your growth, development, and happiness. Stop keeping up with what others are doing on social media and go spend time on habits that will put you back in touch with who you really are!
#3- Quit Drinking
The most common drug of choice in the world is alcohol.
There are hundreds of brands of beer, wine, and alcohol. And almost everyone has a type that they prefer. Drinking alcohol has to be the number one habit that the majority of the world participates in without giving much thought to whether it’s the right decision.
I could publish an entire blog on all of the unhealthy side-effects of alcohol. But something that’s perhaps just as bad as bad health is the fact that alcohol tones down your individuality.
Drinking your beer, wine, or liquor every weekend makes you part of the crowd—part of the mainstream. Because when you spend so much time drinking with everybody else all the time, it’s easy to forget those unique habits that make you happy without the need for substances. When you spend so much time on mainstream habits like drinking, it’s easy to forget about the passions that make you who you are.
Though alcohol is addictive, it’s always possible to quit. You can always draw on blog posts I’ve published like What I’ve Gained From 1 Year And 6 Months Without Alcohol as inspiration to help you quit or cut down on drinking.
#4- Follow Your Own Path
With so much outside influence and pressure to conform with the world’s expectations of who we should be and what we should do with our lives, the struggle to be yourself can really be an uphill battle for lots of folks.
Your parents want you to be one thing, your friends want to be another, and the world wants you to be something else entirely. According to the world we live in, money, power, and fame are the definition of what it means to be successful. Lots of people are pulling you in a thousand directions.
But what about what you want?
Even though everyone you talk to is going to have some input on what you should do with yourself, isn’t this your life? Shouldn’t the decision of what you’re going to do with the rest of your life be your choice?
Deciding to ignore outside input from your family, friends, and the world in general to Follow Your Own Path is one of the most powerful Ways To Stop Fitting In And Relentlessly Be Yourself.
Choosing a life-track that you love might cost you money, time, and popularity. But when it’s fifty years from now and you’re looking back on the events of you’re life, you’ll know that staying true to yourself—choosing your passion over fitting in—was the best decision you ever made.
Photo credit: Khánh Hmoong via flicker
