Be Your Own Idol

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Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. There was a lot of hard work involved in my weekend, but I did it with a smile on my face (okay, I didn’t wear a smile the entire time), because I was cleaning up my new house and getting it ready for us to move in, after the last of the renovations were done. I can’t wait to move and settle in my new home. It’s been a long hard road.

Anyway, a friend and brilliant blogger we’ll call Mrs. AOK is hosting a very cool Link-Up Party on her blog, Mrs. AOK, A Work In Progress, called That’s What She Said . . . where she shares a quote with us and we write a post inspired by the quote and then share it at the party. It’s a very cool idea. 😀

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Mrs. AOK:

Join us each week as we provide you with a quote (by a woman); and you let that quote inspire your written word! Allow it to lead your writing in whatever way works for you. And we mean that! Literally, wherever it leads you to write is wonderful, and perfect, and worthy of sharing! Share, share, share! Let yourself be inspired each week at That’s What She Said! Write on!!

#1 rule: Have fun and be creative ♡
Go find out what she said. Check out the other blogs linked up and show them some love.
Don’t hold back! We want to read what you are writing.
Okay, we do ask you to hold back ONLY if you are NOT following the rules. This link-up is for those who are inspired by the quote of the week. Get inspired!
Not a rule but a suggestion… please share That’s What She Said on your social media. Example: Join @Mrs_AOK & @Courtneynoel Tuesday’s for #TWSS a weekly link-up inspired by women’s words.

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This week’s quote

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When I was very young a teacher that I thought highly of, once told me to imitate the people that I admired. Of course, I took this literally and began mimicking her every move. After she stopped laughing, she explained what she meant, and till this day I believe this was sound advice.

That said, there’s a difference between imitation and mindless devotion. My teacher was talking about imitating character traits for your personal improvement. She was referring to being attracted to qualities that an admirable person has that you’d like to polish up within yourself, admiring in that person what you want to do or be more of yourself. It’s likely that you’re attracted to your role models precisely because they have qualities that you harbor undernourished within yourself and seeing the prominent display of these qualities in action in another sparks your desire to do the same.

As younsters we imitate others anyway. Sometimes knowingly and other times subconsciously. As kids we imitate our parents, teachers, classmates, and even cartoon characters on television. I was a wise-cracking kid partly because of Bart Simpson.

We read books, magazines, and newspapers. We watch television. We use the Internet. We observe people to see how they dress, how they walk, how they talk, how they interact, and much more.

A great way to learn is through imitation. It is a great learning technique. As babies we learned how to do everything by imitating others. Later in life we became embarrassed at the thought of imitation, although we do it all the time.

Handpick the quality of a person you admire. If you admire the general demeanor of a person, or wish that you could be disciplined like her, speak like her or carry yourself like her, start observing that person carefully. Mimics do this very effectively. Notice how they get the speech pattern, the idiosyncrasies and the finest nuances of a person down to a tee.

Imitation is a great tool for learning how to develop your own awesome character traits, so that you can develop into the best you possible. Do not confuse imitating others with lack of thinking for yourself. Imitating a person does not imply that you lose your individuality or that you become a stalker. Rather, it means observing individuals you admire so that you may learn something valuable.

You can only be your own idol when you grow and develop into a person you admire. Until then, expend as much energy as you need working on your life and imitating the people you admire, whether that be Jesus Christ, Budha, Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton, Condoleeza Rice, Stephen Hawking, Helen Mirren, Xi Jinping, Barack Obama, Dalai Lama, Malala Yousafzai . . .

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Do you believe that it’s a waste of time to imitate the people that you admire? Is it a good idea for very young people to aspire to be like people who have proven throughout their lives to be amazing? Who do you aspire to be like?