Becoming a better person and becoming a different person are two completely different concepts. There isn’t a fine line between them but rather a gaping rift something more like the Grand Canyon. Becoming a better person just doesn’t mean the same thing as becoming a different person.
Imagine you’re a tennis player. There’s a difference in becoming a better tennis player and playing a different sport altogether. As is the case with life. We should always strive to grow and better ourselves, but we should never try to become a different human being.
Shakespeare coined the famous saying “To thine ownself be true” in Hamlet when Polonius gives Laertes some advice before heading to a different country. This phrase is just as important in today’s day and age as it was in Shakespeare’s. Why? Well, social media, TV, and the internet make this increasingly difficult because we are constantly inundated with what everyone else is doing or wearing and where they’re going. Sometimes people change when they begin dating someone else. And then there are others still who go so far as becoming different for the sake of standing out.
What I encourage is not caring what everyone else is doing, having confidence in yourself, and sticking to what you know is right.
Here’s a few things you should not change about yourself. If you find yourself changing on these, imagine a large red flag waving around the background of your life.
Your Music
Want to jam to country? Do it. Like pop? Bust a move. Grow up on bluegrass? Crank those tunes.
Your Style
Ladies, we all have our favorite style of clothing, home decor, jewelry, etc. Wear whatever you’re most comfortable in. If those are tennis shoes, sport your kicks. If you prefer navy nails, gel polish is a game changer. If pink lipgloss is your thing, paint up.
Your Ambition
No one should stifle your ambition. Whatever you want to do, work for it and make it happen.
Your Conscience
That little voice you hear can go away, but don’t let it. When you feel that tug that something isn’t right, pay attention to it.
Your Values
Whatever they are, know them – and don’t budge on them. When concrete is poured over the ground, eventually the concrete cracks and grass grows through. Your values will always be underneath. Don’t pour concrete over them.
Should you be open to new things? Sure! Should you grow as a person? Yes! Should you walk daily with Christ? Most definitely. So better yourself. Don’t change yourself. Surround yourself with people who allow you to be you, who embrace and love you for who you are, who believe in your drive, and who encourage your sense of right and wrong.
Be better, not different.
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”
St. Augustine