The only normal people are the one’s you don’t know very well.

-Alfred Adler

The man who spoke these words was founding the school of individual psychology back at the end of the 1800’s, but they have never been more relevant than today.  His peers and colleagues were intellectual giants like Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Over 100 years later and we are still mulling over the “weird” ideas these gentlemen introduced into the mind of our collective culture. We are still coming to terms with the ideas that spilled out of that era.  The ideas of these men and others such as Tesla and Edison and Einstein were the culmination of the seeds planted by the Enlightenment area in Europe during the preceding hundred years. The intellect of the general public has taken this long to catch up.

What was the main idea of the Enlightenment, you ask?

Wikipedia will tell you that it’s purpose was to reform society using reason. The goal was to challenge all ideas, especially those grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method. It promoted skepticism on all fronts.  The Enlightenment was a revolution in human thought. It’s rather easy for us to see how many benefits came to our culture from this period, but to the rest of the general population at the time it was absolutely crazy. Completely weird! But they showed us that there is a HUGE advantage to being weird and thinking differently than the herd.

It is too true that the definition of a “normal” person is a person we don’t know very well.

Everybody is a different person behind closed doors. You would be shocked to see what some of your closest friends are doing behind closed doors right now as you read this. I’ll bet your grandmother would be completely shocked to see that thing you did just the other day. Don’t lie! Pretty much every person you have ever seen in your entire life is a complete weirdo. The whole idea that there exists these “normal” people that we need to stifle out our uniqueness to impress is complete bullshit. Owning your weirdness is wonderful and freeing.

What you think of as your greatest flaw might actually be your greatest gift in helping you become your greatest version.

-Ralph Smart

I grew up knowing I was different.  My mind was on things like the cosmos and ancient Egypt from the time I was old enough to read. I was into all sorts of things that none of my friends and family were too interested in. At a certain age after starting school I thought I was too “weird” to be fully accepted by the herd. I stopped being comfortable with my weirdness and didn’t talk about anything “weird” for almost 20 years. 20 whole years! I was more concerned with socializing and sports and everything else that fills time. I am proud to have finally arrived at a place where I am only going to keep getting weirder as time goes on and I get more confident in myself. The more confident you become in owning and expressing your authentic uniqueness the more of your inner weirdo exposed to others with no fear.

If you’re reading my articles, chances are you’re a weirdo too. The greatest way to be weird around normal people is to stop justifying what you are doing if you feel it is right. It still won’t make sense to anybody that doesn’t want to understand and you should save your energy for something you really want to be doing. We can’t go around trying to convince everyone that we are right. We need only to BE the way that we know we should BE. Live the lifestyle that you know you should. Act in an authentic way and do what you feel in your heart to be right all of the time.

It’s always easier to fight for one’s principles than live up to them.

-Alfred Adler

A sad truth to face as adults about ourselves and other adults is that you can’t SAVE anybody. When you force somebody into something they’re not (at their core) ready to do, you’re not helping them. They’re not changing at the “being level” because they are not putting their own honest effort in. It’s like helping them cheat on their homework in school.  Which only leads to cheating on the test, failing the course, and more risky behavior down the road. They’re not learning their lesson they’re meant to be learning and as soon as you slack in your involvement they go right back to the condition you found them in. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. The only way to truly lead and inspire real change is to lead by example. BE that change you want to see in the world and stop leading horses to water.

Come out of the closet about whatever makes you weird. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas, but don’t force them or feel you have to defend them. We are afraid to reveal to the world who we really are. We keep ourselves in perpetual bondage because we are afraid of being whispered about. Let’s face it. You are going to be ridiculed and called out by people who are close to you as well as people you’ve never and will never meet. Don’t let that bother you. My wife and I literally had to “come out” to our families about eating a healthier diet and getting rid of other toxic things from our lifestyle. It was a lot harder than you think to say, “No offense, but I don’t eat that anymore.” You also wouldn’t believe the looks I get when I tell somebody I moderate my kids’ sugar intake.

The herd is programmed to police itself. The herd doesn’t like when you start doing anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. This is especially true if it involves you starting/stopping something that makes them feel like they aren’t making the best choices in their own life. We get very insecure around people who we feel are “better off” than we are. We break ourselves down in our own mind and tell ourselves that we are “less than” and not “equal to.” We literally and subconsciously hand our power over to anybody our mind has identified as “superior” to us. This isn’t fair because of how aggressively our subconscious concepts of who we should be idolizing are molded by the media. This is followed by accusing said person of “thinking they are better than us” when the only problem exists within the story we’re telling ourselves in our own heads.

The truth is that we are all magical beings that are capable of manifesting anything we can imagine into our lives as long as we put in the required effort. We need to keep looking in the mirror when we complain about things that are happening in our life. Like one of Tony Robbins’ mentor
Jim Rohn always says, “If you want your life to get better, you’ve got to get better” and “If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to start making changes in the way you think and set some new goals. There is literally nothing stopping you from doing anything you want if you are confident enough withstand the criticism until you get there.

Evolving Every Day in Every Little Way

The largest danger in life is that you might be too careful.

-Alfred Adler