Imitation Is Suicide

March 04, 2014

Whether consciously or unconsciously, people around you tend to compare you with others right from your childhood, and plant the seeds of imitation in you. The comparisons may range from close contacts to the distant greats long gone ahead of you. As a result, you begin to imitate those ‘above’ and ‘different from’ you in various ways. The biggest stumbling block on the way of your growth and success is imitation.

“Imitation is suicide,” notes Ralph Waldo Emerson. By imitating others, you’re killing your own originality. Even if influenced by others or your own desire to change yourself, if you try to be someone or something you’re not, you’ll still be who you were meant to be with a fake facade that everyone will see through.

Living your life in consonance with the expectations you’ve built up concerning your life in imitation of others’ lives, will inevitably kill your spirit. Similarly, living your life to fulfil someone else’ expectations of you is a sure route to unhappiness because you’re always going to be at war with yourself. Remember that you are at your best just being yourself!

You are born with unlimited power to become what you want to be. When you activate that power, you bring out all the potentials and talents that God has given you – something genuine and original. No less a genius than Johann von Goethe says, “If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.”

You were born an original! So why die a copy? Just dare to be yourself!