Five Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd
Some people are content to just to be another face in the
crowd. By assuming this attitude, they are saying, in effect, to
the rest of the world, "I'm just average; there's nothing
special about me." For those of us who would rather stand out
from the crowd, there are some relatively easy ways in which we
can accomplish this mission. None of them require a whole lot of
skill or money. They do, however, require a little bit of
commitment on our part. The first way to stand out from the
crowd is to take time to do the little things right. The old
saying goes that "if it were easy, everyone would be doing it."
Well, that's not necessarily true, as there are some easy things
most people don't do because they just don't think those things
are worthwhile. Here are two examples. The next time you go to
the grocery store, notice how many people actually take time to
carry the carts back to the cart-return. You will probably
notice that only a very few of them do. Most will leave them
between parking spaces, in handicapped spaces, or they'll simply
turn them loose, allowing them to roll freely through the
parking lot. By default, they are saying to the world, "I don't
have time to do things right" or "everyone else is doing it that
way and I am no different." If you always take time to take
yours back to the cart-return, you will stand out as positive
example. The other example has to do with making proper turns
while driving, including using your turn signal. Remember how
you were taught in driving school or driver's education class to
make turns? You are supposed to make sharp rights and wide
lefts. Amazingly, many drivers will do just the opposite! Make
turns the way you are supposed to and always use your turn
signal. These are just a couple of examples, but taking the time
to do the little things right will make you will stand out for
the right reasons. The second way to stand out from the crowd is
to find alternatives to profanity. A person who relies on
profanity in his or her speech patterns comes off as someone who
is boorish and has a limited vocabulary. There are plenty of
ways to tell someone exactly what you think about him or her
without being profane. Even a person who is not all that
intelligent seems a lot smarter when he or she avoids the use of
profanity. At a minimum, that person seems more high class than
people who just can't help themselves from using profanity. The
third way to stand out from the crowd is to memorize things that
most other people commonly forget. Most people have short
memories when it comes to subjects like politics and world
events. For example, I'd wager that 90% of the citizens of my
home state cannot name the losing candidate in the last
gubernatorial election. Ten years from now, the majority of
Americans will not be able to name John Kerry as the loser of
this year's presidential election! Too many people are just so
caught up in their own little worlds that they don't bother to
retain certain things that don't directly affect them. You don't
need a photographic memory to memorize stuff. Anyone who doesn't
have some type of memory-affecting brain disease can do it. All
you have to do is practice. Write things down. Repeat them to
yourself over and over. If you can commonly remember things that
others have long forgotten, you'll really stand out. The fourth
way to stand out from the crowd is to live below your means.
This is probably the toughest item on my list to follow as our
culture dictates that we mortgage ourselves to the hilt. We are
taught to keep up with the Joneses. We are taught to buy
everything the banks and our credit cards will allow us to buy,
whether we can afford it or not. However, we should strive to
leave as big of a gap as possible between our income and our
bills. I know there are people out there who have large families
and/or limited incomes and are struggling to make ends meet. I
know that not everyone can have as big of a pad as I have
between my income and my bills. However, it hasn't always been
that way for me. I grew up in a very poor family. We lived in
the housing projects from the time I was six until the time I
was 18. However, we were always able to pay our bills on time
because my parents didn't buy things they couldn't afford. When
I began my career, I didn't make much, but I still always had
some money to spare after paying my bills. If I couldn't afford
something, I didn't buy it until I could afford it. There were
even some things that I was able to afford but still didn't buy
because I wanted to have some money left for unexpected
expenses. I didn't buy my first car until I was more than a year
into my first full-time job. This is a lot of freedom that comes
with living below one's means. When everyone around you is
struggling to make ends meet and you're not, you really stand
out. The fifth way to stand out from the crowd is to make
decisions based on logic and reason instead of emotion and/or
dogma. Too many people react emotionally to situations, rather
than thinking them out rationally. For example, many people will
get upset if someone calls them a name or flashes a particular
gesture at them, even though there's no logical reason to get so
agitated by such behavior. It doesn't make you a
"blankety-blank" just because someone calls you one. However,
many people react as if it does! Other people get caught in the
dogma trap. They make up their minds first and then look at the
facts and evidence later. Even when they do get around to the
facts, they will seek only those which seem to support their
views while disregarding or explaining away those which seem to
support a contrary view. You've met people who are staunch
supporters of one particular political party or the other, for
example. To them, their party is always right and the other is
always wrong, even though common sense tells us that one
particular side of any issue is never right all the time.
Reasonable people realize that the truth usually lies somewhere
between the two extremes. Many times, I've come across "rah rah"
partisan sites in the web, which disregard the dictates of
common sense in favor of the "fact" that their extreme side has
cornered the market on all truth. By using logic and reason to
make your decisions in an open-minded fashion, you give yourself
a major advantage over much of the population. There are other
ways to stand out from the crowd, even though I've just
highlighted five of them here. They include things like using
proper grammar and spelling, volunteering for thankless jobs,
and always being courteous. I'm sure you could think of many
others. The point is that, if you want to stand out from the
crowd, there are ways within the power of almost anyone to do so
- if he or she is only willing.