It’s hard to be yourself. But I don’t think that’s because of peer pressure or our innate desire to fit in (although they don’t help). It’s mostly because “being yourself” is an inherently creative process. There’s no pre-existing blueprint that we can work off of. And the main place we get inspiration is from others…so we end up copying them and being a lot like them. Sometimes too much.
When I was a young entrepreneur/sales manager, I was blessed and cursed with fantastic mentors. Blessed, because I was able to see some pretty successful people in action. Cursed, because then I tried to model myself after them…which actually didn’t work. I became a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster where I glued on different parts of my mentors and hoped that I could pull it off… and I struggled for a while. That changed when someone said to me, “Don’t be Jeff+Danny+Mike. Be inspired and informed by them, but channel D. Fish and you’ll be fine.” And that switch made all the difference.
It’s on my mind a lot these days because as new and bigger opportunities come my way, I’m looking at other successful author/coach/speaker types and wondering how I can be like them. And luckily, I still hear that voice saying “channel D. Fish”. Even if I don’t know what D. Fish would do (remember, there’s no blueprint), I can still come from an authentic place. So my challenge to you this week is how can you channel your true you into your life and business, even if you are just guessing at what that is?