Oscar Wilde once said, "Be yourself, because everyone else is taken!" Who have you come here to be? I've found the majority of people feel life is something that happens to us. We are at the mercy of whatever comes down the pipe next.
I remember the point in time when I and partners started a very successful construction company. During the first couple years, the partners held retreats as we put together our employee principles so that all could be successful. We finished one retreat and I was meeting with our chief financial officer, one of the partners. I told her that it might be difficult for me to follow one section of the employee regulations we had put together. She looked at me and reminded me that I was not an employee of the company. I was one of the owners and my participation level was different. I held the sacred space in a different way.
So because of that we are continually given the opportunity to be exactly who we are. For many years, there are times when I bark. Yes, I bark! Like a dog! It sounds realistic and causes people to look for a dog. I've done it to let my wife know where I am in the supermarket and I've done it on the running trail. I can't tell you when or where it will happen. It's just an urge that comes over me. I once was in a relationship dating a school teacher. One of her relationship rules was I could not bark in her school district. She did not want to try to explain why the man she was with was barking. I still don't know why I bark (maybe it's a full moon kind of thing) and when it will happen but it does happen.
Living our life on our own terms often causes us to stand out. I am reminded of Sandie Wood, a bar maid in Bristol, England. She passed away at the age of 65 in November of 2022. Her friend Claire described her as one of a kind who wanted to leave the world being herself. She wanted her funeral to be one to remember but not for the sad reasons. Her pink coffin was festively decorated with sparkly shoes and her handbags and it arrives in a horse driven hearse. During her funeral a dance troupe held a flash mob routine to the song "Another One Bites the Dust." The attendees to a person agree it was definitely Sandie's funeral.
So a goal for each of us is to have an event or situation or issue where in the end people look at each other, nod their heads, and say, "of course, that is exactly how he/she would do it." Be who you are!
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