“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the most powerful and inspiring TED talks that has impacted my life in a positive way is a talk by Caroline McHugh on “the art of being yourself:”

Caroline McHugh on “the art of being yourself:”

…what I do for a living is I help people be themselves. Not in any narcissistic or solipsistic way, but because I believe that social reformation begins, always starts with the individual.

When you look at remarkable individuals – and when I say remarkable or successful individuals, I don’t mean monetarily successful; I mean people that have been successful at achieving whatever they set out to do – you’ll find that the thing they have in common is they have nothing in common. 

These are people who, you know, work in many of the fields I work in. I work with people in corporations, I work with captains of industry, I work with selected politicians. I’ve worked with geophysicists. I’ve worked with chamber orchestras and ballet dancers and pop star and opera singers, and I’ve identified the thread that links them.  These are individuals who’ve managed to figure out the unique gift that the universe gave them when they incarnated, and then put that at the service of their goals.

I think that we all come complete. We come complete with one true note we were destined to sing, and these are people that have managed to figure that out. It doesn’t dictate your choice of job; what it dictates is how you do it. When we see these people we invariably call them larger than life. You know, you’ll see somebody like Roberto Benign, and you’ll say, “Oh my goodness.” Eve Ensler, she’s larger than life, which always makes me smile because how could you be larger than life?

Life is large. But most of us don’t take up nearly the space the universe intended for us. We take up this wee space around our toes, which is why when you see somebody in the full flow of their humanity, it’s remarkable. They’re at least a foot bigger in every direction than normal human beings, and they shine, they gleam, they glow; it’s like they’ve swallowed the moon.

And all the work I’ve done has led me to believe that individuality really is all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, people who are frightened to be themselves will work for those who aren’t afraid.

Now your job is not to be anything like any of the people that I put up behind me. In fact your job is to be as unlike them as you can possibly be. Your only job while you’re here on the planet is to be as good at being you as they are at being them. That’s the deal.

Learn more about Caroline McHugh and her work IDology, Life at Work.