There are traits and behaviors that set you apart from others in your community. What types of things do you do that no one else does?
You might think that with nearly eight billion people in the world, everything is accounted for. There are no traits or abilities that one person has that are different from the billions of people all around the world.
However, that’s not true at all. While you certainly may have some shared commonalities with others, the combination of past experiences and internal differences makes you unique.
Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss the related question: ‘What makes you you?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What gives a person value?’
It is certainly true that a larger overall population means that there are people who like the same thing. For example, you might find just a few – or even zero — people who like the same obscure band you like if you live in a small town. There will be more of them if you live in a big city.
And yet, your totality is as unique as a snowflake. There is no one else who has the same brain connections that you have. No one has read the same books, in the same order, and has the same conversations. Just like there is an endless difference in our different fingerprints, there is infinite variation in brain patterns and experiences.
So what sets you apart? What are the things that are unusual about you? What do you do that no one else does?
Related questions: Why do we like what we like? What makes you you? How do you judge yourself? What gives you purpose? Do you feel lonely?
I’m pretty sure I’m good at encouraging people when they need something to celebrate as well as in using encouragement to help individuals develop new skills or tap into their talents. I don’t know that I am unique in this regard, but it’s the closest I come.
I cheer people on in several ways. For example, I give people pep talks when they need it most to keep striving for their desired outcomes. Next, I try to find ways to motivate people by celebrating big wins and small ones. I train some folks to learn new skills they’d like to develop or use talents they should employ more often. I also help people work toward and accomplish their goals. And, I assist many in discovering new things they’d like to achieve.
Others recognize this most in how I train new interns to assist my organization, HOME Line (a statewide tenant advocacy non-profit), in accomplishing public policy objectives. After sussing out an intern’s desires, skills, and talents, I give them a semester-long project to take on. The project will not be completed without their leadership. I then train them on how policy work happens and how I see their unique characteristics as ideal for the project we both agree they want to take on. I tell them I am always there to help them through challenging aspects of the work. I truthfully note that when they do good, I look good, so I have every motivation to help them achieve their goals. When things get tough, I show them how far they’ve already come in their project. I give them a pep talk, noting that none of their work would have happened without them — this means that my organization is better suited to achieve our larger objectives based on the work they’ve already put in. And then, when they complete their project, I try to find ways to celebrate. Usually, but not solely, this involves elevating their work in the company of others who’ve benefited because of their efforts.
No one cares about German expressionist modern dance history and the fine arts as a human service as well as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and its sensory motor integration aspects as well as federal fair housing, ie more of it and more fairness in it like I do. In the first I am a published author and in the second an active provider. Thirdly I have spent 35 years working on fasds and educating my fellow Foster and Adoptive parents as well as grandparents and other fictive kin. And lastly since 2015 I’ve been to at least a thousand meetings regards many aspects of housing needs of our most extremely low-income Americans. I am pretty sure this makes me the only Therapeutic Foster, modern dance Community organizer with impact on a national level regards homes that are safe secure sanitary and sustainable for all. I don’t know that this makes me unique in the history of the world but for today it leads me to believe that I might be the only person standing where I stand, thinking what I think and believing what I feel is most important on this planet and how to get there.