In a world where your image matters more than you, one is always undergoing one identity crisis after the other. You do not know who you are. When you know who you are, you cannot accept it because you feel you could do better than that. When you do better than that, you feel your society would accept you if you had done something else. Stuck in an endless loop of self-rejection and seeking validation. This is where Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” comes into play.
Swimming against the tide is hard. The job is not for the weak-hearted, but whatever is hard is always worth it—one way or the other. At just seven months old, a severe polio attack left Madhavi paralyzed below the shoulder, but her parents were determined not to let that define her future. Armed with their greatest gifts—patience, and love—they empowered Madhavi to spread her wings and conquer the world on her own terms.
Through sheer determination, Madhavi triumphed over a near-death experience with the help of hydrotherapy and went on to become a national champion in para-swimming and went on to achieve impressive feats including being a banker, public speaker, and National Para Swimming Champion with 30 state and national-level medals.
How to find your voice?
Do you sound like a duck being strangled when you start humming? If you do, you can relax. That is not the voice Emerson would refer to. It is finding your best-fitting choice – what you want to say and do.
Vincent Van Gogh has earned a cult-like status and following in anyone who enjoys art. This was always not the case. When he started painting, the art world was dominated by realism championed by French schools. There were legends like Monet who pioneered impressionism. However, Van Gogh’s style did not fit in there. His brush strokes resembled impressionism, but his work was bolder, with emotional colors and expressive subjects. Instead of blindly following either of the schools he relied on what he could do best – his unique style.
It is always good to learn from many but to do what you want to do because there is nobody in the world who could do it better than you do. Having a deep empathy towards the external world, rather than rejecting it, is the first step to identifying what you can relate to or learn from. You will also know where you will get support or who will reject you. You will understand the ground on which you can stand firm.
Coursing through fear of being misunderstood
Church firmly believed that the earth was the center of the universe when Galileo contradicted it by saying that the sun if the center of the universe. He was misunderstood and vindicated for a long time. The time itself proved him right and made him the father of modern science.
Stories like Galileo tell us, that one has to get over their fear of being misunderstood if one wants to progress. This takes immense courage and willpower to fight against the odds and come out successful, or worse, successful only after precious time has passed. But this will always be more rewarding and fulfilling than adopting a facade to mask your true identity and thoughts.
The weight of society is in quintals. Emerson’s quote directly tells us to overthrow this. Especially if you are someone who performed well, made a mark, and is aiming for higher, you will have to beat the pressure of expectations before you beat your actual goal. A lot of us quit, but successful ones take a break and get back in the game. When Simone Biles, the renowned US gymnast, took a break during her career peak she was told that she was going to miss the bus of her prime. She was the golden child of the US Gymnastics team and the pressure for her to succeed was enormous. The break helped her recoup her mental health and get back at the sport, more powerful than ever.
Resist the pressure to conform
Studies have shown that the pressure to conform starts at a young age. A survey of over 1,000 children found that by the age of 12, nearly 80% of them felt that they had to change aspects of their personality to fit in with their peers. This issue accelerates during teenage and continues in some shape or form across our adulthood. Once you start working, you create a professional persona and fight to maintain it every day. A lot of work cultures enable people to behave in a certain way so they can maximize their productivity while maintaining decorum. This comes at a heavy cost of people feeling like resources and losing their true selves.
Have things on and off work that help you to get in touch with yourself. At work, it could be being passionate about a certain project or involving in team-building activities. Off-work can be a passion you want to follow, a hobby or even spending time with your loved ones. People might say you could have done more work when you were painting on weekends, but what is the point of putting your back on the grindstone to grind away your silly self slowly?
Rewards of self-acceptance
A 2020 study helmed by the Harvard Business Review found that teams with higher levels of psychological safety – where members felt comfortable being themselves – were significantly more innovative and productive than those with lower levels of self-acceptance. This is not just true at work, but in your personal life as well.
You get through your moments of panic quickly. You will enjoy the small joys of life. You will build deeper, more meaningful connections. Emerson’s words remind us that true power lies in honoring our unique qualities and refusing to be molded into something we are not. By embracing self-acceptance and authenticity, we unlock a wellspring of creativity, personal growth, and empowerment that can have a ripple effect on our communities and the world at large. In a world that constantly tries to make us something else, the greatest accomplishment is to be unapologetically ourselves.