The Lost Art of Individuality

First off, let me start by saying happy 2012 to everyone. It’s truly a blessing to be here, because Lord knows we could easily not have been granted this opportunity to keep on living and getting better.

That being said, I want to focus on something that I feel is lacking in this world, but hopefully we can start a turnaround this year: individuality. Too often we do things because we’re told that we should be, rather than going with our instincts or what we believe in. Whether it’s tv, blogs, magazines, it seems to me that a lot of our actions are indirectly being dictated by someone or something other than ourselves.

And it completely makes sense. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. On top of that, as of 2009, the average American spent 13 hours a week on the internet. While there’s nothing wrong with tv or internet (especially during football /basketball seasons) does it not make sense that by spending that kind of time watching and reading about the lives of others that we fail to fully develop ourselves?

But what is it that REALLY keeps us from reaching our full potential? Is it fear? Fear of being individuals? Fear of failure? It’s easy for me to hop on ESPN and read who the top draft picks are, but is that really benefitting me at all? Or am I just putting off doing something on that never-ending checklist that we all have? I can talk about sports all day, but what about the things that have been on my agenda for a year now?

I’ll tell you this: if we always take the safest route, we’re likely to end up regretting our decisions, or lack thereof, along the way. And granted, we might not do too bad, but there’s always that feeling that we could have done more. On the other hand, if we take more chances, I believe we can live with the results, however varied they may be.

As individuals, we all will experience some degree of failure; that’s a given. But if we’re trying, if we’re really trying to do something that’s more than what we are currently doing, we should applaud each other for our efforts.

I don’t necessarily believe in resolutions, but I ask that we all focus on finding our individuality. If we really work on that this year, I don’t think there’s any way we can look back on 2012 with any regrets.

Cheers to you,

JIP