Has anyone told you, you’re weird? Good. Let me say this very clearly, WEIRD IS GOOD. Weird is great. Weird IS the new normal.

Have you ever spent anytime thinking about what sets you apart from everyone else? Your niche, your talent? This is your weird. Your weird should be embraced. Why? Because it makes you … well, you.

Do people look at you like you have two heads? Do you like to break out in dance in a crowd? Do you have ideas that go against the grain? Do you like to draw strange new creatures? Do you count beans as a favorite pass time? Do you giggle at strange jokes? Do you laugh at funerals? Do you arrange random objects into fun new shapes? I could go on. There are so many things that set people apart from one another. Your job is to find it. Find your weird.

Weird can be creative, mathematical, sexy, or organized, but it is 100% (or 110% lol) you. How many things in life can you claim 100% ownership? Who you are, your quirks, your habits, your strengths, your weaknesses are all part of your weird. Own it. Like a snowflake, no one is the same and everyone can be set apart by something. That something, that weird, is what makes you shine. I was told once that I was ordinary. It rocked me to my core. Someone thought I was ordinary? My answer to that, you just didn’t like my kind of weird. And if ordinary is your weird, make it the weirdest ordinary of your life.

‘Positive deviance,’ ‘opposition is validation,’ and ‘disruptive expression,’ are phrases that I’ve heard at conferences this year. Speakers basically telling us to be weird, go against the grain, disagree, speak up, have new ideas that make people look at you like you have two heads.

I have all sorts of weird. I have two heads on a regular basis. Sometimes my weird drives people away. Sometimes my weird is so alluring, I have to ask people to leave. Here is the thing, weird, no matter how extreme, will always be with you. You can try to push it down, store it in a box, sweep it under the rug, but no matter what, weird will always be part of you. I am weird. I’ve started to embrace my weird at 48. When will you start?