Why being different is good: 11 reasons why your differences make you valuable –
Introduction 👋
Research shows that as humans, we tend to like people more if they’re similar to us.
Humans tend to:
- Like things that are familiar 🪞
- Be scared or skeptical of things/people that are different 🤔
- Trust people more if we have things in common with them 🤝
But what does that mean if you’re different to everyone else? 🤷♀️
How do you cope when when you’re obviously different?
Whether you’re different because of your:
- appearance 🪞
- age 🧓
- disability ♿
- marriage or civil partnership 💍
- pregnancy 🫄
- race 🌈
- religion or belief 🙏
- sex 🧑
- sexual orientation 💑
- gender identity/reassignment ♀️♂️
- family 👪
- upbringing 👶
- interests 🤔
- personality 💖
- health 👩⚕️
Here are 11 reasons why being different is actually really valuable. 💖
1. It makes you more interesting ☀️
Whilst humans love familiarity, we’re also very curious.
If you’re different, you have a different story to tell, and that makes you more interesting to other people! 📖
2. It gives you a different perspective 👀
Being different makes you see situations in a different way, which can be really helpful because you:
- can come up with ideas people haven’t thought about before 🧠
- explain things in different ways 💬
- change peoples perspectives 👀
- understand things other people don’t 🤔
3. You can make teams more successful 🏆
Imagine you’re creating the ultimate football/soccer team. ⚽
Would you want every member of the team to be a goalkeeper, with the exact same background, appearance, and skills as a goalkeeper? 🥅
Definitely not – you wouldn’t score any goals if everyone was a goalkeeper!
Being different makes teams more successful. 🙌
If you’re on a team and you’re very different to everyone else, you should think to yourself:
“Great, this is my opportunity to help the team to become more successful!”
4. It can make you more creative 🎨
Being different means that you have different ideas, which are a really important part to being creative. 👩🎨
A lot of creative people become creative because of their differences — they use their differences to other people to inspire creativity. 🤩
This is something that people who are the same as everyone else wouldn’t be able to do!
5. People can learn from you 👩🏫
Whilst it can be really difficult when you’re different, it’s a great opportunity to:
- Teach other people about your life and differences 🔊
- Help people to become more open-minded and accepting 💖
- Introduce people to new ideas and ways of thinking 🧠
- Make people feel more comfortable with and aware of your differences 🤝
This is a great way to make the world a better place. 🌍
6. You can learn from other people 🤓
When people are the same as everyone else, they don’t have to put as much effort into understanding the people around them. 😴
On the other hand, if you’re different to everyone else, you’re constantly learning about other people’s perspectives because they’re different to you!
Over time, being different can help you to understand other people better. 🧠
7. You stand out from the crowd 💃
One of the great things about being different is that it makes you stand out from the crowd.
This can:
- give you more opportunities because you’re different 🎁
- make you more memorable 🧠
- help you make more friends because you’re more noticeable 🤝
- help you to inspire others 🤩
8. It can make you more resilient 🏋️♀️
Being different can be tough, and make you a tough person as a result. 💪
Because you’re different from others, you could be:
- More confident in uncomfortable situations – because being different is uncomfortable!😬
- Able to adapt to change better (because you’re used to being surrounded by people who are different to you!) 🏄♀️
- More comfortable standing out – because you’re used to being different! 👩🎤
9. It can improve your communication skills 🔊
Being different can mean that you might have to work harder to:
- make sure people understand you ✅
- get people to trust you and listen to you 👂
- help people feel comfortable around you 🤝
- get people to accept and embrace your differences 🤗
This can all help you to develop amazing communication skills, that are really valuable in the workplace!
10. You’re more attractive to businesses, and can help make them more successful ✨
Whilst people might find being different uncomfortable, businesses love it. 🤩
The most successful businesses are often the ones who do things differently! 🕺
Research has also shown that the businesses with the most diversity (people who are different), might also be more successful. The studies found that companies with more diverse management teams have 19% higher income due to more innovation! 📈
11. It can make you a better friend 💖
Being different can also make you a better friend. 🧑🤝🧑
If you’re different, you could be:
- More understanding of people’s differences, because you face being different every day
- Better at understanding different perspectives
- More empathetic when people are having a hard time if you’ve struggled when being different
- Good at giving people advice, with ideas they haven’t thought of before
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
Being different makes you valuable because:
- It makes you more interesting ☀️
- It gives you a different perspective 👀
- You can make teams more successful🏆
- It can make you more creative 🎨
- People can learn from you 👩🏫
- You can learn from other people 🤓
- You stand out from the crowd 💃
- It can make you more resilient 🏋️♀️
- It can improve your communication skills 🔊
- You’re more attractive to businesses, and can help make them more successful ✨
- It can make you a better friend 💖
Hopefully this article has helped you to feel more confident about why your differences make you valuable!
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about why being different is good, share this post with them!
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