How many times have you heard that phrase bandied about? Most people take it as a worn-out cliché; some even think it's a cruel joke, since as they claim "if everyone is special, aren't you just like everyone else?"
Well, like all quotations and sayings, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt and a whole lot of your own evalutation and relevance in your life. But I do believe that if we care to look closely and critically enough, we can each identify a unique factor in ourselves that can lead to success. The only problem is, most people don't even begin looking.
If you examine your passions, your values, your instincts, you'll find that you can put them together to form a coherent picture of the kind of person you are. And it's true that we each have a unique set of these. If you can align some of these key aspects of yourself, you're pretty close to identifying the unique factor that can help you achieve great success in life.
In the words of Sidney Madwed, "If you want to be truly successful, invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. when you find it and focus on it and persevere, your success will blossom."
When you find your unique qualities, you'll realise that they are always available. They are an endless resource of joy that you can give to yourself and to others. With their support, you become more resilient. And you begin to take responsibility for the happiness you want in your life.
We all need to find our own paths towards identifying what makes us unique, but here are some fundamental questions you might begin with:
- What do you feel is your primary purpose in this life, and why is that important?
- What are your greatest natural talents; things you've been told you have a knack for doing?
- What are you doing when you feel completely alive, deeply involved, and the hours seem like minutes?
- If you just found out that you had six months to live, what would you spend them doing?
- How are your deepest passions connected to what you are doing now?
Eugine Loh, 938Live, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
