Deviate

Deviate. Depart from an established course. 

Everything is different for people who have established themselves. They are their own person. This can hold for any endeavor, but I'll use writing in this case because that's what I want to do. 

It's healthy to copy those who you look up to, or want to be more like. Replicate it, break it down. Learn how it works, how they work. Rebuild it. Put it aside. Repeat. 

Then do your own thing. Build your own way. 

I see a lot of others, in all types of industries following each other. It's fine to see where to go, or what should be done in certain situations, but for the most part you ultimately want to blaze your own road. 

Any person who has made anything decent for themselves in this world didn't get there, for the most part, by following the crowd. 

And anyone who's made their mark, or who you  know as the top of their game, have created a path for others to follow. Some are aware that they've done so, and some probably don't even realize it. They just did their own thing. They saw the goal and started running towards it. 

Any musician or band or group that are known automatically when you hear a few seconds of their music is doing their own thing. 

Learn something from a song you admire, and article, a story, a movie, then change it. Do it in your own way. Add to it. Then put it down the only way you know how--being yourself. 

It feels good when you go your own way. You learn to rely on yourself, almost like a muse. This thing takes over and you're not looking at those who are popular or famous, but at this entity you've made of yourself. You're looking up to you as the person to inspire. 

This subject got me thinking. There is a point where, just like driving a stick shift to where you have to manually shift to get to the faster gear, you realize there is something that has to be done in order to keep moving in your career, or hobby, or whatever you want to call it. 

Some people don't shift, some people don't know how. But once you learn it, and get to the next point to shift, you wonder how it was so hard in the first place. 

But that shift point, that is the magic I'm talking about. See, you take all those things you've learned, breaking apart and putting back together the product you admire. And then you have all the pieces before you and you slowly (or quickly) put the machine back together. 

It could be just the process of creation you're putting together--your process, or it could be a creation you're working on with the tools you've already gathered from learning with other instances. Either way, the first one will look primitive, but you'll see the beginning, and just like decorators who can look at an empty room and see the potentially finished product, you will be able to see what will evolve, what things you have that will define you and set  you apart from others out there already. 

Then you do the next project, and the next, each time those things you found before becoming more clear until you have created your method, your entity, from the chaos. 

Now you add to it, you can always learn, of course. But it's yours, and you use your vehicle and your road to get to that goal ahead. 

And then the next. Try it. 

But think of yourself as one of those who have made it, as one of the heavy-hitters. Of course think of yourself succeeding, but having done so with the method and road you've built. 

WCM