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How to Discover your Uniqueness — Part 1
September 30, 2009 | 6 Comments
So how do you stand out of the crowd when there are over 6.7 billion people in the world? Marketers will tell you that you need to differentiate, life coaches will tell you about finding your uniqueness, sales managers will say you need to find your unique selling proposition, but is this possible? With the margins of difference becoming narrower can we be considered unique?
I am sure some people are shouting DNA! If you are not an identical twin then yes it is highly improbable (not impossible) that some one else has the same DNA. But does DNA help you be unique in the sense of standing out from the crowd. Maybe, our DNA is probably a contributing factor to the type of person we are and some personalities are more likely to stand out.
Now that we have DNA out the way – can we be unique? I think so. I believe uniqueness is a combination of all the different aspects in each of us. If we take individual aspects we are not for example our hair colour is not unique; our political belief is not unique; our skills are not unique, but when you combine everything about you – you are unique! Each of us has our own Unique Blueprint (UBP) and understanding that is the first step on the path to standing out of the crowd or differentiating ourselves.
I am going to write a series of articles starting with discovering your unique blue print, what to do with it and how it can help you to take that next step to achieve your goals. This can be used if you want t brand yourself, stand out from the crowd, just understand yourself better, help you get direction for your life, to get a new job, start a new business or start blogging – whatever it is you want to do.
So how do you discover your unique blue print?
I sat down and thought long and hard about the best method to approach this and this is the best way I can think from what I have internalised through my life. The simplest method to use is a mind map. Another thing is that this method can be applied to products and business by changing the aspects listed below.
You need to find a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the middle and write ‘me’ in it. Draw 12 spikes from the ‘me’ and a circle at the end of each. Write the following words in each circle: personality traits, beliefs, attitudes, interests, passions, physical appearance, experiences, knowledge, skills, fears, ambitions, goals.
For the next step you have to be brutally honest with yourself. This blue print should be for your eyes only as part of your discovery.
Personality Traits
Make two spikes and circle from this circle and in one write ‘my view’ and in the other write ‘other’s view’. Here you write down all your personality traits as you perceive yourself and then ask a few people close to you to list your personality traits (don’t argue with them if you disagree, just note them down).
Beliefs
This is what you believe to be true or false in life.
Attitudes
Write your attitude to everything from life, work, relationships, religion, politics and anything you can think of that you have an attitude towards. Attitudes are usually positive or negative or degrees of these.
Interests
List all your interests whether they are active or just something you like to read or hear about.
Passions
This is an extension of interests but only lists things you are really passionate about. It could even be chocolate.
Physical Appearance
This needs to be as objective as possible. Just describe yourself. This is not a list of how you feel about yourself just what you are.
Experiences
Everyone no matter how old has had experiences. List all the experiences you have had that contributed more to who you are. For some people if will be to do with high/senior school, others could have trips, relationships, bringing up children, starting a business, a successful career or even failure. List whatever you think has had an impact on your life.
Knowledge
This is not intelligence. I have not listed intelligence as this, for me, is a measurement and not an aspect of you. You can describe yourself as intelligent under personality if you wish. Under knowledge list all the things you have good knowledge about.
Skills
List all the skills to have to do things in life whether it is working with numbers, organising or even DIY.
Fears
List things you are afraid of.
Ambitions
An ambition is what you want to be the best at. You may have none here.
Goals
List what you want to achieve. Goals usually have deadlines, but for now just list what you want to achieve.
Feel free to add other aspects I have not mentioned if you believe they are important. You need to spend sometime on this and go away after you have completed it, then come back and read it again. Once you are happy you have put everything down you will have your unique blue print.
My next article is called So I am unique; now what? We take the process further and explore our direction.
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Thanks Bill, somehow your post ended up in spam and I only saw it today. I would love to read some of the articles you want to share.
Glad to help
I will keep a look out for you Brian.
What I write is usually from my own experience or knowledge and seldom based on someone elses ideas. Saying that there is a lot of useful information and good ideas out there, so if I come across something I will let you know.
Thank you for the great advise. I will use this to help support writing USPs for my clients. It is very hard to find how-to’s on writing unique selling propositions. If you have any other links to support this i would love to hear from you.
thanks
Brian Mcfarlane
Search & Social media Specialist
http://www.nerdec.com
skype: brianscottmcfarlane
Hi Winnie.
I am thrilled that you found my post thought provoking and inspiring. It means a lot to me to be able to help other people.
Take Care
Lee-Ann
Great article. You and I are on the same wavelength as I just wrote an article on understanding your uniqueness and how to identify it.
I utilize this to show candidates how to identify their strenghts and weaknesses as ‘your strength overused tends to become your weakness’.
Though this is only one facet of what makes each of us unique.
Great article and look forward to seeing more you have.
Perhaps we both have articles we can share with each other.
Bill Morgan
The Job Swami Career Blog
http://thejobswami.blogspot.com
I really like what you’ve written. Thank you! It’s very inspiring and thought-provoking. I was thinking about starting a blog and I’m not sure what to blog about. After reading your post, it gets me thinking — must do the ‘find oneself’ exercise and find the things that will get me ‘talking’. I too am a marketer and can relate to what you’re referencing. I’ve booked marked your blog and look forward to hearing more from you.