Whatever You Create – Make it YOUnique
Glen / 
14 Comments / 
October 27th, 2008 / 
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When I started this site I knew I wanted to help people be who they want to be and live the life they want to live, mostly because that’s a path I’ve been on myself. Having a better understanding of the fact that you really can create your own reality has improved my life more than I can ever possibly explain.
Knowing you aren’t the constraints of your mind and the judgments of others don’t make you who you are can be an amazing, if not relieving, feeling. However, despite the fact that I want to help others and I’m passionate about this subject, I’ve noticed something that worries me…
…sometimes going to write a new post can feel like a chore. I’ve been trying to work out why. If I’m passionate about a topic, and I love running and promoting websites, then surely I shouldn’t be struggling for motivation or purpose?
If I noted more specific details about this feeling of writing being a chore I would add:
- Knowing a post is going to take hours to write
- Feeling like I need to keep up a certain writing schedule or I let people down
- Having to give a ‘social friendly’ title if you want something to spread
I know I’m on a little negativity trip here but I want to make my original thought processes a little clearer. Eventually, after quite a bit of brain-racking, I realised why writing posts might feel like a chore to me. I set myself very strict quality guidelines and will only publish my best work. Posts don’t need to take hours to write, and I certainly don’t have to post on certain days, nor do I have to change my preferred titles.
I set myself high standards and want to make sure I stick to them, your personal standards are what set you apart from others in anything you do. I think these standards have helped me immensely and I think the main reason that I’ve been able to grow traffic to this site quite quickly is that I’m always being one thing: YOUnique.
What is YOUnique?
There are a few companies out there called YOUnique (internationally) which I think is quite a clever spin on words, but I’m not referring to any companies when I mention the word here. What I mean by YOUnique is being unique by putting yourself into things. To get a better idea of non-younique, just think how small blogging would be these days if nobody revealed their name or face, it would be no different to most journalism (apart from the name) that we read today and would be totally unoriginal.
I have a high standard for my blog posts because I want them to be YOUnique, I want them to be something I’ve created that is different from anything else that is out there. I always:
- Add attractive images
- Try to incorporate a personal story (this is a big one)
- Have a complete and easily accessible about page
- Come from a unique perspective (age, life experience)
- Refrain from writing about things I don’t have a clue about i.e. Yoga
Being unique might seem like a difficult challenge, but it is never difficult to be YOUnique, and actually being YOUnique makes whatever you are doing unique. Why? Because you are putting yourself into it. Nobody is ever going to have the same personal stories as me or the same ideas for the future of their company, I make sure I keep things open and honest and that way authenticity shines through in my writing, or at least I like to think so.
So, how can you be more YOUnique?
Being YOUnique
Being YOUnique is quite simply putting yourself into things, but what exactly does that mean? To help explain things a little further, I’ll try to give a few examples:
Darren Rowse who had tried his hand at blogging decided to create a resource on ProBlogging over 4 years ago and is still updating it to this day. There were no other ‘ProBlogger’ resources at the time and he simply wanted to share his experiences and the things he’s learned.
Steve Pavlina who was blogging about personal development for over a year without making a penny. The key point here is that money didn’t matter and shouldn’t when it comes to doing things that you love to do.
Drew Curtis when he created Fark.com, the social news site that gets well over 1,000,000 visitors per month. It was different to anything that was out there because Drew made things in the way he liked them, and simply assumed others would enjoy it as well.
Whatever it is that you are doing / creating, see if you can do things in your own way. You could do data entry as a part-time job but that doesn’t stop you from coming up with your own way to speed things up or offer your company suggestions. You could want to break into the hip-hop music industry so just because there is a ‘standard’ it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create your own style (think: Outkast).
If Einstein, Shakespeare, Bill Gates or Charles Darwin had of followed the rules, the world would be a very different place than it is today. See if you can do things more efficiently, more effectively, with more impact or in new ways. See if you can bend the rules and create something people don’t expect to work but ‘just do‘ due to your passion and commitment.
Spark your creative visions and put a little bit of yourself into everything you do. That way you’ll either create something extraordinary that changes the world, or you’ll simply make your time on earth a lot more enjoyable. Call me crazy, but I still have huge plans for PluginID and the future of this company and they involve having a big impact on the world. Because I’m doing what is true for me and making it MEnique, there is no such thing as failure, because I couldn’t do things any other way.
If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate if you share it on Twitter, Facebook or Delicious!
Some interesting quotes by Dr. Seuss I had accidentally stumbled upon which celebrates being yourself –
You are you, now isn’t that pleasant?
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
I like that last one, thanks for sharing (and the comment)!
I couldn’t agree more Glen. I’ve been there lately, with the posts. My posts take a long time, because I put a lot into them. I started revisiting older posts on “Deja Vuesdays,” to give myself an extra day and spotlight older work. Some of the audience doesn’t like this, but it’s better in my eyes than posting just to post. You are right, if we are to be our best, than we must be ourselves.
I think we both sound a little bit like perfectionists
The YOUnique factor is why I follow all the blogs that I’m reading today.
I’ll take that as a compliment
Thanks for the comment Daniel
You make a good point. Indeed, how each person distinguishes him/herself is plays a big role in success.
Blogging in the personal development “niche” can be very competitive and exhaustive as well. A few things that have worked for me is
* Creativity : for images, posts. I try to steer clear of the most likely topics people write about… goals, motivation etc. I am not implying that these topics are not important. Unless I have some “YOUniqueness” to offer, I don’t write about it!
* The “human touch”. Some articles imply that the author is “perfect” and the advice is bound to work. I on the other hand like to share what I call my incidental gleanings. Sometimes, showing ones vulnerabilities and relating it to the post, goes a long way.
Shamelle
This is but another enjoyable read. I try to often check in to see what you’ve written, like your writing style and how you’re able to pull everything together. When I’m done reading your site, I leave with some inspiration and energy. No one can be “You” better than “You.” Keep up the good work Glen!
Inspired and mind-filled.
Once I thought of writing for PlugInID, but, now, I feel that it’s a great something that you build up and nourish, exactly the way you want, at the same time, making it useful for others around.
Glen,
Niche blogging already puts us in a box. I think it is so critical to show ourselves and reveal our uniqueness to engage (like really engage) readers.
There are so many things successful bloggers recommend but I cannot wrap my head around the posting schedule one – I think I might lose the ability to write from my heart if I have a set schedule or deadline. I am really working on that one
Since coming back from a three week vacation, I’ve decided to cut back on my blog reading and one of the main criteria for reading is including personal stories in the blog posts. Nothing turns me off a blogger faster than impersonal posts. If I wanted plain information, I could google it or find it on Wikipedia.
That being said, people can go too far and head into an egoblog situation where it’s all about them and that’s just as boring. I think you strike a nice balance here, Glen.
Cheers,
Alex
Nice post Glen,
You are definitely right about the time and effort this takes. I think the bloggers who are most successful (as in happy with their work and site) are the ones who make it the most YOUnique.
@Maya – definitely a limited niche is already unique, but there are still often hundreds of blogs in that niche alone so you need to take it further than that. As to your posting freq, I’d suggest to write when you want, but slow down your post frequency a bit to have posts lined up in the future, that way you never HAVE to write, you can let them schedule out. I sometimes have posts lined up for 3-4 weeks and take time away from writing until something new or creative comes to mind to start again. Often, I shift my posts around as well if I write something that is more timely and want it published now.
“Spark your creative visions and put a little bit of yourself into everything you do. That way you’ll either create something extraordinary that changes the world, or you’ll simply make your time on earth a lot more enjoyable.”
Glen, I love these lines. We are so much in sync these days. My very last post was titled Do It Your Way!
Go man, all the best to your big plans!
Hi Glen – I’ve always loved blogs were the author shares a little about themselves in each post. When I started blogging, I knew I wanted to do the same. I think it shows our readers we’re human and also gives a blog that personal touch.