What makes you Unique?

UNIQUENESS

These writings reflect me and my journey. They’re published in order to encourage you to capture and explore every moment, opportunity and wonderful event of your journey.
 
Go where your heart takes you. Have moments and days of different thoughts and experiences. Get off the worldly commute and see the countryside. Go without your satnav.
 
Every moment can hold something amazing for it is a doorway to understanding. Do not settle for more or better but for understanding, insight, perspective and personal truth.
 
Create your own crazy life journey. Make it up as you go along. Enjoy every minute especially failures, disappointments, illness and fatigue for these are the reminders of who we truly are.
 
Share your successes with humility and use these to encourage others. Fire them up with joy and enthusiasm. Hold out your hand and offer to help. Surprise others with a call. For the more you reach out, the more you learn about yourself.
 
We build our own truth from the building blocks we have been given, such as our DNA, our health, our parents, our culture, our schooling, our religious upbringing, our gifts and talents and much more.
 
So, it is no surprise that many of the concepts, ideas and sayings that we pick up early in life are reflected in who we become. ‘Go with the flow’ is what my Dad said. ‘If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing right.’ was another.
 
These messages from our foundation years are always with us. But they are only seeds for us to water. They are the raw material for us to grow, shape, form, build, develop and to create something unique.
 
This is the key purpose of our lives, to be a unique structure, a unique creation and a unique offering of love in the world. It doesn’t matter how we do this, for each journey is of its own.
 
We do not have to follow the traditions of the past, the beliefs of the present or the technology terms and conditions of the future. All these can trap and enslave us.
 
Our task is to learn and enjoy being fully ourselves in this life. For life is meant to be a process of joy. If we can understand this we will see beyond the difficulties, suffering, pain and death that we must endure. This is the quest.
 
No one perspective, teaching, or personal development book will get you there. Life is an ongoing personal development process. Only you can know what is going on within you and what makes real sense. There is, in my experience, no quick fix or instant download.
 
Our worldly attachment to power, position, money, instant satisfaction, ego, vanity and self-centredness all work against this complete understanding of who we are. And yet, these are so often part of the daily reality of our lives.
 
But there can and there will be, moments of light, glimpses of understanding and instances where we see things differently. These are the stepping-stones for uncovering our path.
 
Every life with its glamour or failures, with its successes or poverty holds its own unique, beautiful and infinitely precious journey of understanding. This is the wonder of life for we are born with nothing and we die with nothing. The only thing in between is our journey of understanding.
 
Help everyone to have the courage to step outside of the norm, to take time for themselves, to be different, to listen and to offer us ideas and perspectives that most of this world would find strange, crazy or unrealistic. Let us all be an inspiration of difference and acceptance. Let us all go with the flow and see where it takes us.
 
The beliefs of another are no threat to you. The traditions and practices of your neighbour should be the greatest joy especially if you disagree with them or ‘just don’t get it’. For we all should celebrate not just our uniqueness but our ability to be different in a world that drives conformity, control and standardisation.
 
We need creativity, innovation, compassion and we need new perspectives. We need different ways of dealing with the new challenges the world is facing. Let us all be champions of uniqueness. Encourage others to ‘have a go’, say what they really think, question values and create better ways of living.
 
In our interactions with others let this light of uniqueness shine through. A smile, a ‘thank you’ and encouragement must be part of every conversation. Reaching out to those in need, those who are lonely and those with no one to talk with is our mission of uniqueness.
 
Our mother and father gave us our DNA and the foundation of our uniqueness for us to grow and become all that we can be. We do the same for our children who then in return do the same for their children.
 
We are all protected under an umbrella of uniqueness which cannot be troubled, overthrown, or destroyed. It is not confined to this world but is there forever, cherishing each of us, as together we build an eternity of love.

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PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1. In what ways are you unique?
2. Describe your outlook or philosophy on life.
3. What are the key messages you will pass onto your children?
3. How can your uniqueness help to build an eternity of love?

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Day 100 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises