“Be the first rate version of yourself, not the second rate version of someone else.”
{Judy Garland}
Have you ever got so carried away wanting to be like someone else or wanting to run a business like someone else that you forget all about you? I have.
In the past I’ve often found myself getting distracted by wonderful and inspiring people I come across online or in person and then I start to think ‘Wow, I need to be more like them!’ or someone who I look up to tells me that I should be more like this or more like that and I think they must be right and so I change. When I think about it I realise that this is something I’ve been doing since I was a little girl. Back then the person I most wanted to be like was my older sister – if she did something I wanted to do it, if she liked a certain type of music, I started to like that type of music. It’s a natural thing to do – if someone inspires you of course you want to be a little bit like them. But the problem sets in when you think that in order to be as amazing as they are you need to be just like them too. You lose sight of who you are, because you think it’s better to be someone else.
I think this is fairly common in business (and in life) – we spend so much time looking at what other people do and how they do it (in magazines, on TV, online!) it can be easy to get carried away thinking we need to be like that too.
When I started making videos I spent a good few hours on YouTube watching how other people were doing them. I found that a lot of people were so enthusiastic and would sometimes do something a bit crazy or silly and I remember thinking, “I need to be like them!” They had a great audience and had been making videos for a while, so I thought they knew best. So I made a few videos trying different things and I watched them back… no one will EVER see those videos. They were so bad, because I was trying so hard to be something I wasn’t. When I made those videos I was forgetting who I was and what my voice was. It’s so easy to do and the truth is just being yourself can be really scary.
There have been times when I’ve felt so lost and just thought to myself, “what am I doing??” because I was trying to be like someone else or what someone else told me I should be like and I lost sight of me.
So, in my latest video I share 3 simple steps for staying true to yourself – these things have really helped me.
Remember that you are unique, you are brilliant – yes, be inspired by others, yes, listen to the advice other people give you, but always stay true to yourself.
Carrie x
