Mountains of Arizona
Sunrise 57 Degrees
6:01 a.m.
There is little value in conforming. You won’t get attention for it. You won’t make much money with it. You won’t make a ton of impact with it. So if you’re in this world to change it, then it makes sense to give non-conformity a really good look as a way of life.
There are countless forces in our world all pushing people to conform. Money, religion, corporate codes and statues folks are brainwashed into calling laws, school, “culture,” and more.
Everywhere you look, you are gently and not so gently pushed in that direction.
This is injected all throughout the business world too. Take the crazy idea of “best practices.” Many people are trained, when choosing to pursue a new activity, to figure out “how” to do it. It’s much more efficient to do that, no?
This is how you lose at the same time you think you’re setting yourself up to win.
Best practices in writing would tell me to sit down, undisturbed, and focus on what I’m doing so I can really write well. If I cared what people said, I’d buy the focus software, I’d buy the noise cancelling headphones, I’d buy the special lights and the picture of the serene ocean view to hang on the wall.
But I’ve discovered my writing is FAR better when I’m distracted. I write a little, I let the dog out, I write some more, I check my email, I write some more, I pull a sharpie out of one of my kid’s hands before they go all Picasso on our wall. With this approach, my subconscious has the space to create far better ideas.
As I write this (with one hand), I have a baby crawling on the floor, a two year old slung over my left shoulder sleeping and another one looking through the fridge for breakfast.
Choosing not to conform is inconvenient. Especially at the beginning. You see the conformers all enjoying a specific benefit the system provides as a reward to keep the conformers placated. I imagine you could consider it a stealth form of Soma from Huxley’s A Brave New World.
Inconvenience is a small price to pay though. Because over the long term, conforming is deadly. It messes with people’s minds as the right path for them is slowly covered over with growth in favor of the well worn path sanctioned for the masses.
If the path you’re walking on is crowded, then it’s not yours.
Discovery has value. It has value when your prospective clients and customers discover YOU and it has value when you discover things too.
Are you in this world to “get somewhere?” Or are you here to add your unique contribution in a way no one else can?