Guess who?
“Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.”
“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
This insight applies to all fields of endeavor, but especially in ours.
The more you sound like a better version of everyone else, the less likely you are to reach your creative potential.
I know it’s hard, especially now: fewer jobs, more pressure, more demands on your time, more top-down control.
But it was hard when Howard Stern became Howard Stern.
It was hard when e.e. cummings wrote those words.
If it was easy, it wouldn’t be so rare, and if it wasn’t so rare, it wouldn’t be so valuable.
Find yourself, your true self, and let it out.
Share you, the real you, warts and insecurities and doubts and failures and all.
Use your struggle to help you feel.
Voice your empathy and hope and love.
Be yourself. Be who you were before people started molding you and taking off your rough edges.
It’s the edges that will draw others to your voice and what you say.
Be nobody but yourself, ’cause that’s the only way your unique gifts can be shared.
It’s the only way you’ll say anything worth hearing, worth noticing…worth missing!