Respect Your Individuality

The most important possession for any individual is his individuality. You may look like someone or behave like someone but you cannot be him. You remain what you are meant to be. There are physiological, cognitive & behavioral changes in us as we grow up but these changes lead us only to our true being; not to make us like someone else. This is also not to deny the fact that environmental influences affect us to shape our being but from within we remain as pure & original as God wants us to be.

So, what is that stops you from being someone else? It is not your thoughts or your feelings; it is your soul. Your soul is the real you. It not only guards you from external influences but also guides you towards your calling. It connects you to your purpose. The trouble starts when the soul starts getting polluted. When you don't listen to its voice & allow it to wander. When the noise outside muffles your inner voice, you lose your individuality. Many people experience death twice. Their first experience is when they allow their soul to die & after this living becomes meaningless. But the positive aspect of this fact is that while a dead body cannot be revived, a soul can be revived. It can be made as pure as it was in the beginning. 

A child has the purest soul because he enjoys being himself. He doesn't care what others look like or what they think about him. But as he grows up he becomes conscious about people around him. He doesn't want to be like someone; he likes to be that someone. And here the struggle begins. He stops listening to his inner voice. There is nothing wrong to be like someone or to follow an individual. But one should allow one's soul to guide him whether he is walking towards his purpose or just imitating someone. 

Our whole emphasis should be to get that one point that makes us different from others. And that point is our spark which will take us to our goal. Once we understand it we should devote rest of our life to sharpen it, to make it better & to be as different as possible from others in this aspect of our personality. Henry Ford termed it as 'our real claim to importance'. 

"All Fords are exactly alike; but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society & schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but i say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance." - Henry Ford. 
One thing that you should hold close to your heart is your individuality. Respect it at all cost.