Finding Freedom in What Makes You Different
When I was a little girl I'd often go get my hair cut at the local salon in our small little town. It seemed back then that everyone knew everyone and often the salon would be filled with chatty older women talking about the town gossip or whatever news there was to be had. And because of this I DREADED having to go to the hair dresser.
You see I had (and still do) the brightest, curliest red hair you'd ever seen. And it attracted a LOT of attention. A lot of unwanted attention to a little 7 year old. The minute I would enter the salon immediately all the ladies getting their hair died would attack me with attention. "Look at her hair!" "Do you love your hair?" "I'd LOVE to have hair like yours!" And all I would want to do was crawl in a hole and disappear.
Because to me, I didn't want to be different. I wanted to be like everyone else. And I certainly didn't appreciate people fawning over the number one thing that made me stand out. I couldn't understand why I couldn't just be like everyone else.
Over the years I've learned to embrace my red hair. In fact it's the number one feature that I love most about my body! (And I secretly hope that one day I'll have a bright eyed curly haired red head who'll be embarrassed to go to the salon too;)) My red hair has become somewhat of a metaphor for my life. I'm different. That's ok. In fact it's pretty great.
When it was time to build my business there were several roads I could take. I could do it the way that everyone else was doing it, or I could forge my own path. I could try and blend in with everyone else or I could try and stand out. I could run a business based on certain financial principles or I do what my heart felt was right.
Often times in our industry it can be easy to get discouraged. It's easy to feel like that in order to be a success or to even be happy that you need to follow a certain recipe, that you need your business or your life to look like those around you. But we are all meant to forge our own path. And our path to success, happiness, a filled life, is going to look completely different from the person forging their own path next to us.
If my red hair has taught me anything, it's that there is a freedom in our differences. Freedom to make a life that is just for us. Curly, frizzy red hair and all.
Deborah Zoe Photography, Deborah Zoe Blog, Deborah Zoe, Encouragement, Motivation, Boston Wedding Ph