Screw being Normal

If living authentically and choosing your own path are journeys you’re looking to embark on, you might need to get comfortable and embrace doing things you’re way. Forget what the pack’s doing, screw being normal and instead, listen to the guidance of your own inner self. It knows the way, you just have to trust it. And trust that “being normal” might not be what nudges you to achieve all your biggest hopes and dreams.

The good things about being weird

good things about being weird

When we’re kids, we’re all weird. We do exactly what we want, whenever we want to do it. We put crayons up our noses, play with monster trucks when the urge strikes and dance in whatever circumstance we feel like. There’s no need to be reminded of the good things about being weird because we don’t even know that weirdness exists. 

We just do what we feel.

No one’s weird, because everyone is weird.

Then, in adolescence, all of that weirdness is stuffed into the back boxes of our closets, out of view from everyone. The focus shifts from doing whatever we want to doing what we need to do to fit in. In our defense, teenage years are weird enough even for the most “normal” teenagers. Most of us wouldn’t have been able to cope if we had the additional attention of our freak flags flying high. This is clearly not the phase in our lives when it’s easiest to be ourselves.

Then we creep into adulthood and for some stupid reason, we keep our teenage mentality about being ourselves, i.e. we are barely ourselves at all. We keep doing what we need to do to fit in. Slivers of our eccentric personalities might slip out with people we’re close to. But out in the world, we aim to just blend in.

Can’t everyone recall a workshop, class or meeting where the presenter says something like “Raise your hand if you think … is true.” You are sure it’s not true. And yet once you see everyone else’s hand go up, all of a sudden you debate raising your hand. You might have even ended up raising it, just to follow the crowd.

Why we strive to be normal

good things about being weird
This girl was feeling the tunes and loving life with her horse head on. She was embracing her wacky headpiece choice and didn’t care what her friends or anyone said about it.

One of our most basic needs as human beings is to fit in. After meeting our physical needs, then making sure we are safe, next we can’t keep evolving without feeling love and belonging. It’s in our genes to want to be part of the gang.

As we all learned as teenagers, being part of any group means being similar to its members. The tough thing is being brave enough to not need to be exact duplicates of anyone to feel a sense of belonging. Learning to still be you, no matter how different some parts of you may be from your sewing group is key. It’s great that you all love making trendy pantsuits together, but that doesn’t mean you all have to like the same kind of music or have the same political views.

Instead, we mold our appearance, behaviors, ideas, shoe style and bubble gum flavor choice to become as similar to the other group members as possible. It’s as though we think that we need follow some rigid similarity guidelines to be friends.

And I suppose that some groups would be like that. But if a group doesn’t allow you to maintain and embrace your individuality and uniqueness, maybe it’s not a group that you should want to be a part of. Any group that requires you to limit your thoughts, beliefs, ideas or whatever else in order to belong, will surely not allow you to grow and bloom to be the kick-ass person that you could be. Like the horse head girl in the photo.

Why being weird is the way to go

There are a lot of reasons why molding your amazing personal features to be more like others is complete ridiculousness. So many reasons in fact, that I’ve made a list. I love lists! Especially when it’s to help promote our individual weirdnesses. So here goes, reasons and ways to stop suppressing your wackiness:

  • You can recognize the greatness of others and still be great in your own way. There’s no need to copy their greatness. Great people will enjoy your company if you are just yourself. If you’re just a duplicate of them, you bring nothing new to the table.
  • Sometimes we copy the ways of people that we want to impress, even if we think they’re bad people. But if they aren’t good people, there is even less reason to falsify your behavior for them to like you. Only strive to impress people who will be impressed when you are being yourself. (Ok, maybe you’re thinking “but my boss is a complete jackass, but I have to impress him to get a promotion”. But imagine if by being a complete phony, you manage to get that jerk to like you and get that promotion. Then you become stuck in an eternal cycle of needing to maintain that fake persona to keep him satisfied. This will end up making you miserable.)
  • Then there are other people who you like and think are cool, but with whom you tone down your wacky ways to make sure they’ll like you. It’s such a shame to do this because people are most attracted to people who are comfortable enough in their own skin to let their natural kookiness shine through. If you are keen to make this cool cat like you, avoid hiding those odd ways of yours. Instead, be you, eccentric hobbies, hairdos and all. It’ll make you seem more human and relatable. People are attracted to people with whom they feel like they can be themselves.
  • If we all become copycats of one another, we lose the exact thing that gives the world and our cultures their flavor and beauty: our individual creativity and uniqueness.  Let’s not all become the same person. That would be boring.
good thing about being weird
Just hanging out at the Egyptian temple in my arts and crafts outfit. I just had to try on my new outfit.

  • There’s no way you will live authentically and passionately if you are just trying to be like others. If you need a reminder of the benefits of living authentically, check out my homepage.
  • The world’s brightest and most innovative minds create masterpieces by thinking outside the box, not shoving themselves within it. You won’t become the world’s best anything if you just do things how they’ve always been done.
  • The best type of life can be achieved by making decisions that many wouldn’t dare take. Be the oddball, live greatly.
  • When you do things to comply with others’ demands, expectations, interests, life ideologies, etc. you will inevitably become unfulfilled by the life you create.
  • Everyone has “weird” traits. You heard me, EVERYONE. Pretending otherwise is just insanity. We might as well admit this to ourselves and embrace our weirdness and that of others.
  • I hope that reading this has helped convince you of the greatness of your weirdness. Please, don’t hide it, don’t minimize it, don’t avoid it. Embrace all that makes you unique and share it with the world.

    Interested in reading about how to ditch your desire to be normal, but don’t have time right now? Pin it here!

    good things about being weird

    This Post Has 46 Comments

    1. José

      Brilliant.

      1. Jo

        Gracias 🙂

    2. Lucy

      As always a great post 🙂

    3. I love this! I believe in being yourself and I’m not afraid to let go and be a weirdo. The world would be a happier place if we weren’t all shoved in tiny boxes. Thanks for sharing!

    4. Olivia

      I can absolutely relate to what you mentioned about the fake persona to impress others. I have done this in the past thinking I was being polite and that this interaction would be short-lived. Here I am 5 years later still around these people (we normally move every 3 years due to military life) and I can no longer tolerate their negativity. I have reached a point in my life where I don’t want to mold myself to fit the norm and want to live extraordinary.

      1. Jo

        I totally agree! Don’t do it. If they don’t like how you are, well that’s their problem, not yours. You be you!!!

    5. Dia

      wonderful post! the word “weird” is so subjective anyway! So screw whoever wants to label anyone else and best to just be the most authentic version of ourselves:)

    6. Emily

      I love this! I am working on being someone who doesn’t care what other people think and just lives her life! Thanks for leading by example with your wackiness 😀

      1. Jo

        You’ll see, once you start doing it, you realize that it’s crazy that you’ve been living life any other way.

    7. Rachel

      haha this is so true! I think everyone is a little weird so why hide it!?

    8. ShootingStarsMag

      Oh, I’d definitely consider myself weird but I don’t mind. I think it’s good to be yourself and not worry so much about others. I don’t want everyone to all be the same!

      -Lauren

    9. Sophie

      Normal is so boring 😉 I love the saying ‘act like no one is watching’ because it’s so true. We need to be true to ourselves and do what we love and HAVE FUN! Who cares if people look at you funny, or act different around you. They’re just lying to themselves are most likely not living a fulfilling life!

      1. Jo

        Exactly!

    10. Sarah W

      Brilliant! I’m definitely for embracing the kookiness in life because it’s our differences that make life interesting.

      1. Jo

        I completely agree!

      1. Jo

        When I’m talking, I usually go with kooky

    11. Kairavi

      Beautiful post. We all should just stop trying to fit in. But unfortunately even our own family looks down upon us if we dont go the normal way. But being weird is the new amazing trend. And it would be great if you would highlight a few more things other than the headings. Thank you.

      1. Jo

        That’s what the purpose of my blog is, to highlight the possibility of everyone doing things their own individual way, wacky, normal or whichever way they see best for them.

    12. Cyndi

      This is so true! Idk about you but I think so many weird things that I can do or say out loud! We teach our kids to be them self’s but we can’t even be silly! Awesome post!

      1. Jo

        We should all aspire to be as weird as kids. They’ll show us the way back to our silliness

    13. Rachel G

      I think what you said “You can recognize the greatness of others and still be great in your own way” is definitely the key. I’m passionate about advocating to people to feel comfortable living a little bit outside of “normal.”….it’s fun to be a bit weird!

      1. Jo

        It is fun! And I find the more that I do it, the more I enjoy it

    14. Juli

      It’s always good to not be like everyone else and embrace your uniqueness.

    15. CherishingFlo

      I was literally just telling one of my good friends he was weird last night in the most wonderful way and he was talking about how negative he thought being weird was. I said all that means is that you’re different and you stand out. You’re special and you run to the best of your own rad drum and that’s always amazing. Who wants to be a typical drone like, copycat cog in the machine we call life? Great post and you made some great points!

      1. Jo

        Well, tell your friend to check out this article. And to write to me if he still doubts why it’s so great to allow your “weirdness” shine through. Everyone’s got some weirdness, might as well be honest about it

    16. elena torres

      this is a very relatable post.I am glad i came across your page 🙂 I agree with you that we often have a crowd mentality and fitting in becomes more important than standing out. I find that especially with social media, we have become so accustomed to presenting an image and oftentimes is not our own. Great post!

      1. Jo

        I totally agree! This is exponentially true on social media.

    17. Katie

      Yes! Love the arts and craft outfit! Lol

      1. Jo

        Thanks! I was looking pretty classy that day!

    18. Lydia Samson

      Oh my goodness! I love this! All of these points are amazing and so true!

    19. Nina

      it’s like you read my mind! I am so all for weirdness and yes embracing it is greatness. I’ve always been the weird one and it’s what made me stand out even when I don’t want to. I love weirdness, it makes people interesting and genuine. To weirdness and beyond! ^_^

    20. Eco Friendly Mama

      This is so true! Love that outfit and how you’re just going for it in that pic! I feel weird sometimes when I’m at a restaurant and ask the server to NOT put a plastic straw in my water. Or when I buy something in a store tell the cashier that I brought my own shopping bag. Eventually I hope we get to the point where caring about the earth is not seen as a weird thing to do, but rather, a necessary one for our survival : )

      1. Jo

        Ha! Ya, I understand you 100%. I’m super anal about plastic straws and bags too, and when I say it, I feel as though people think I’m just being a pain. But I always say “TOO BAD!!!”. I don’t get care if people get annoyed with me, I’m being a pain for our dear Lady Earth 🙂

    21. Winnie MD

      PREACH! Love your writing style. I’m definitely a new fan of your blog

      1. Jo

        Aw, thanks Winnie!

    22. Hillary

      I love this. You’re so right. I can connect to people who are weird way more than ones who are normal! We could probably be friends 😉

      1. Jo

        Ya, I love fellow weirdos. Normal people are lame. People who are openly weird, are just being openly themselves, and I say Hell Ya to that!

    23. Shannon

      BeYOUtiful!!

    24. Caitlin

      YES SO MUCH YES. I wrote a similar mini blog series about comparison culture and how and why to get passed it. I feel this post so much, girl! I love how free-spirited you are and it totally comes out in your writing.

      I always tell people to remember that we were all kids once! 🙂

      Here’s a link to my post just in case ya wanna read it, Jo!
      https://www.theflaneurco.com/comparing-yourself-others/

      1. Jo

        Read it and loved it!!! Thanks for sharing. This quote: “The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” rocked my world. LEft you a comment.

    25. Xexilia

      Ho ho, who woldua thunk it, right?

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