You were born an original, don’t die a copy. ~John Mason.
The world is full of copycats. Today more than ever, a cookie-cutter mindset prevails because it doesn’t require inspiration or imagination.
But God created you like a one-of-a-kind, unique individual. He made you to live as an individual. You have a unique fingerprint. No one has ever had that fingerprint, and no one else ever will have that fingerprint. Go ahead, take a look at the fingerprint on your index finger. Look at it closely — there’s nothing else like it. You have specific DNA, unlike anyone else in the world. Think about that for a minute — of all the billions of people living or have ever lived on this earth — and those who are yet to come — your fingerprint is not just rare, it’s memorable, distinctive, in a class by itself. Your DNA identifies you and you alone.
Not only do you have a unique fingerprint and DNA, but God knows the number of hairs on your head. And the Bible even says he knew you before you were born. He even knew you when you were in your mother’s womb.
No one else can be you, yet the tendency and our “training” in today’s world try to funnel us into a line like sheep being led to slaughter. Our training began the day we were born, and some would argue — Napoleon Hill among others — that the dye was cast long before that in our lineage. Yes, before our training began, our parents and other family members had already been trained to train us. Yes, that’s deep, but the good news is that we can break the pattern.
Scott Alexander says: “We are the product of three things: The people we associate with, the books we read and the media we watch.” Indeed, we are a product of our surroundings, unfortunately. We emulate others, and we mirror and mimic what and who we see.
Further, in his classic book The Dream Giver (read an excerpt here), Bruce Wilkinson writes about Ordinary, a man who lives in the town of Familiar. Ordinary was accustomed to his boundaries and had plenty of family and friends who helped to keep him inside those fences. Can you identify with Ordinary and his land of Familiar? Same ol’, same ol’ and classic comfort zones will keep us hostage and prisoner and bound up in the status quo. And you know status quo is just Latin for the mess we’re in. But those comfort zones are imaginary and will never allow us to realize our full potential, much less live God’s intended life.
Yes, it’s all in your head. The good news is that you have a choice. You can either choose to stay in the rut — inside those artificial barriers called Comfort Zones — or you can choose to climb out, see new things, meet new people and live again. You didn’t get here overnight, so breaking free is a process, not a one-time event. But the process begins with your thoughts.
Henry Ford says, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Hill believes that “Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds”, And the Bible itself declares, “…as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
The first step to becoming you is deciding to be you. We’ve established that you are unique and different — “wonderfully made”, and that’s quite okay. You can play the role of the copycat along with 90% of others in the world, or you can become the person you were designed to be. You have a choice of two roads. Why not take it out for a test drive today?
In conclusion: Be you; everyone else is taken! Be you — if you aren’t, no one else will! Be you; it’s the open door you haven’t yet gone through!
“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” ~Psalm 139:16.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?” ~Dr. Seuss.
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” ~Judy Garland.
“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.” ~e.e. cummings.
Additional reading.