Uniquely You

I have an identical twin, but there is no one like me.  There’s no one like you either.  You and I are unique and we love to be described that way.
 
If you look up the word unique you learn that it means “without equal or rival, unlike anything else”.  Doesn’t it make you smile hearing how truly unique you are?  Right now, we’re all thinking, “Yeah, there’s no one like me!  I’m different, I’m awesome, I’m ME!”
 
And then we do something that ruins our “uniqueness high”, something that truly is the enemy of unique.
 
We compare.
 
We compare ourselves to our friends, to our enemy’s, to our co-workers, to strangers standing in line in front of us at Target.   I do it all the time and as much as I’d like to tell myself that I’m getting better at realizing my own “worth”, I caught myself comparing my outfit to another woman’s outfit just this weekend.
 
Fail.
 
I was standing in line behind her and she had on the perfect sweater with the perfect pair of skinny jeans.  She was wearing these amazing grey ankle boots and this very cute white and light pink blanket scarf.  Seriously, she could have been the woman they put on Pinterest boards to show the rest of us how we SHOULD be dressing.
 
And it’s not like I was dressed in dirty pajama’s or something.  I had on a pretty nice outfit.  Good pair of jeans, nice ankle boots, and my black plaid poncho cape sweater thing (I never know what to call it really).  Before I noticed her in line I was feeling really good about the outfit, and then I see her and I instantly start belittling myself in my head.
 
Why do we do that?
 
I have been reading Without Rival by Lisa Bevere and she said something that really impacted me.  “Comparison is nothing but a distraction.” “ We’ve believed the lies that another woman’s beauty takes away from our own.”
 
Standing there in that line at the store I compared my outfit to that other woman’s and I instantly felt…less.  I felt like I should go buy a new outfit so I could…compete. 
 
UGH!!!  I’ve gotten into a comfortable “not buying new clothes” groove and then BAM - I’m triggered and want to buy something…new, better, prettier.  Advertising and the fashion industry have done their job SO well. 
 
Thankfully I recognized what I was doing pretty quickly and decided that I needed to change my thinking.  The problem didn’t lie with that well dressed woman in line, the problem was squarely mine. 
 
So what do we do when we catch ourselves comparing?
 
Well one way is to use the Rule of One.  For a few days only compare yourself to one other person – yourself.  For a few days stop thinking “I wish my outfit looked as good as hers” and start thinking “How does this look compared to what I wore yesterday?” or “I look great in this!  I never thought of putting this blazer with this t-shirt, but it works and looks awesome!”
 
If I had left that store and tried to put together the same outfit that woman had on, what would be unique about that?  Would it had been MY style?  No, it would have been hers.  And aren’t we all trying to find our OWN style this year?
 
So embrace the uniqueness of YOU!  If you’re going to compare yourself to someone else, compare yourself to who you were yesterday and who you want to be tomorrow.  And also remember what Dr. Seuss tried to teach us when we were young.
 
Today you are you
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
That is youer than you.