--
Nature has given a unique identity to all of us; each of us is different than other. When we try to copy someone else we are going against nature. Nature never copies; every living thing produced by nature is unique. We all are unique in ourselves and have our character and qualities, but we don’t even try to look for them but try to follow someone else, and in turn, we kill our original self. In a situation to become someone else most of the time, we lose our identity permanently. Our individuality is expressed more through a various combination of choices than particular possessions.
Our society, family or even parents always want us to follow some ‘real’ examples; they call them ideals. There are role models in every culture. Their achievements are great and nothing wrong with getting inspiration from their lives to shape up our life. Our elders always try to show us predictable path, let’s take an example here, a common cause of failure is a mistaken ambition for the boy on the part of his parents. Such boy is showing less interest in his study because he is following a direction identified by his parents, that runs counter to all of his interests and abilities. As a result, he is unable to perform well and destroying their future. This all due to the decision of his parents that is imposed by him regardless of his interest because his parents compare him with other lucky boys in this field and they do not understand that it is not necessary that their boy also has those abilities. Only they try to imitate other and do not care that their boy is suffering from a stressful situation.
“Imitation is not inspiration, and inspiration only can give birth to a work of art. The least of man’s original emanation is better than the best of borrowed thought.”
― Albert Pinkham Ryder
It’s not easy to understand ourselves, we have to take a lot of struggles to realize who we are and very few people try to do that. Looking at some else’s life, it can help us to understand our life. Everyone is unique in this world; it’s not a very sensible thing to constantly compare our-self with other people. We consciously or unconsciously try to imitate those whose personalities inspire us. In this struggle, we do not focus on exploring ourselves and ruining our innate hidden abilities.
Ways to stop imitate others
When we choose to emulate someone else instead of being who we are, we are telling God that he was wrong in creating us the way he has. God loved you and made you different than everyone else. No one will ever be you. Embrace who you are.
Every person has a lot of strengths and weaknesses. The primary goal is to identify them. When you try to be someone else, you are ignoring the forces that lie within yourself. The person you are trying to imitate is not better than you, but they are different, and that is okay.
You can imitate, but at some point, you have to start identifying who you are as a painter — the ‘who am I’ of the inward journey that every artist must take. (Camille Przewodek)
Everyone has a different experience than others. Imitating other people is fruitless because you will never fully follow them because their experiences are unique to them. You could never be me, and I could never be you. We are different in so many ways, and that fact is a beautiful thing.
We should try to take inspiration from people around us, from all important people who are living on this planet but resist the temptation of imitating them. There is the difference between imitating someone and getting inspired by someone, and we should understand it.
When inspiration dies, imitation thrives. (Darby Bannard)
Rather than trying to copy somebody we should try to discover ourselves, understand out true nature and try to be ourselves. Let’s discover real us. Let’s give us a chance to express our true self; our true individuality is not the one which society or people want us to be. Let’s just be our-self.
My suggestion:
My advice is to create your standards, be proud of yourself and accomplishments. Be happy and secure in your skin. The “Self” is the first love. Other love falls under that. YOU DON’T NEED TO COMPETE! What you need is to be happy. You are a person, appreciate that and stop needing to be stroked into believing in yourself.
