7 Reasons to Embrace Your Quirks (Part 2)
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Have you ever experienced a sense of not belonging, a feeling of being slightly peculiar or different from others around you?
Perhaps you've spent years fixating on your quirks, striving to conceal them in the hope of being better liked or fitting in more seamlessly with your peers, or even appearing cooler than you genuinely are.
This is the second part of this two-part episode of Embrace Your Real podcast where Iām going to share why being weird and different is actually a good thing! I want to show you how your life can change once you stop obsessing about being cool and start focusing on being your true authentic self.
What I discuss:
5. Quirks can be a form of self-expression.
6. Embracing our quirks can also help us break out of our comfort zone.
7. Embracing our quirks can help us discover new passions.
Link mentioned in the episode:
Episode 332: 7 Reasons to Embrace Your Quirks (Part 1)
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
Macro Counting Made Simple: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Free e-book: www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook
Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-6bda1ca8?ref=cm_sw_em_r_inf_pub_influencer-6bda1ca8_dp_DgsIam9salgfi
Transcript:
Hey. Hey, beautiful human. Can I steal 5 minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real. Let's get it. Let's go.
Welcome back to another bonus episode. We are talking all about seven reasons to embrace your quirks. And this is part two of the two part series, so be sure to go check out part one. After listening to this, you don't have to listen to it in order, but I really just kind of wanted to address this question that I get a lot, and that is like, how do I embrace my real? Like your podcast is embracing your real and a part of being real is really embracing your quirks. I feel like we oftentimes are so critical of ourselves and we just think that we're a little too weird or that we're different from everyone else. And we've gone years obsessing over these quirks. We've tried to hide them in any possible way so that we could fit in, so that we could be cooler. And I get it. Like, I've been there. There's still days where I'm like, Man, if people only truly knew. But I think that it's important that we have this conversation and that we just talk about why being weird or bizarre, being yourself is actually a good thing. And I want to show you how your life can change once you really stop obsessing about being cool or stop obsessing about trying to fit in and really just start accepting being your truest, authentic self.
So in part one, I shared kind of the first four kind of quirks that we should embrace and a reason why we should embrace them. So reason number one is that makes you stand out. Reason number two is that it allows you to express your creativity. Reason number three is that it helps you find your people. And reason number four, it boosts your confidence.
So in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the three remaining reasons. But before we dive in, I want to share this review. It comes from Nicole Breedlove. She wrote a five star review and said:
Authentic love, Julie's authenticity, sharing her faith and helping women see the positive side of everything from their body to food to hard life things.
I love this so much. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send this in. I genuinely appreciate every single one of you guys taking the time out of your day to send in a review. It not only helps our team understand how these podcasts are helping you, but it also helps other people who stumble upon the podcast and say like, What is this podcast all about? They kind of read some reviews and see if it's for them. So thank you. Thank you, Thank you. So like I said, in part one, I'll say it again from my personal experience, really embracing my quirks, my unique qualities, that was really like the starting point to living a life that actually made me feel happy and fulfilled. And let's be real. Like every single one of us is unique. We all have quirks that set us apart from others. And I think that it's important that we don't compare that to one another because we're all uniquely individual. And often times if you think someone doesn't have like a quirky side, it's either because they're hiding it or they haven't embraced it yet. Like, and oftentimes hiding it comes from not embracing it and not being confident in that.
So let me kind of chat about three additional reasons to embrace your quirks and how it can be transformational in your life.
So number five, quirks can really be a form of self-expression. Believe it or not, self-expression, I believe, is a great thing. Like your quirks can be a way to express yourself, create like creatively, when you embrace your unique qualities, you're showing the world who you were created to be. And that's what we want. We want to embrace who we truly are. So whether that's through your fashion sense or your music taste or your cooking skills or your sense of humor, like your quirks can be a form of self-expression that sets you apart. And again, believe it or not, we want to set ourselves apart from everyone else. This is not only how we live a happier life, but it's also how we can find more fulfillment in our life. If we're just like everyone else, no one is going to look at us differently. But when you set yourself apart through self-expression, you really do open yourself up to more opportunities for yourself, which can lead to greater fulfillment or whatever that looks like in your specific life. But self-expression that can vary from person to person, right? Maybe you love wearing vintage clothes. That's a form of self-expression that shows your personality or creativity, or maybe you love vintage style in your home and you love like styling your home with older things that have history and depth to them. Or maybe you love reading poetry or whatever it is. There's so many different things, like you could be listening to a different genre of music. That's a form of self-expression that shows your individuality. Maybe you have a unique sense of humor. That's another form of self-expression that shows your wit, your intelligence. Either way, people are going to fall in love with that. They're going to fall in love with your creativity, your individuality, your weight, your intelligence. So show the world what you want to offer and see what the world gives you in return. And also knowing that when you lay your head on that pillow at night and you said, like I gave it my all, I was myself through and through, there's no hiding. There's no need to feel like you can only be yourself around certain people and not other people. And that's just an exhausting way to live.
Number six Embracing our quirks can also help us break out of our comfort zone. Let's be real. Nothing great ever happens within your comfort zone. Nothing transformational is going to happen inside that little bubble that you've built around yourself. I'm speaking to myself as much as I'm speaking to you. Things that change your life are uncomfortable, and to live a life that makes us truly happy and fulfilled is going to require us to step outside that bubble and break free from our comfort zone. Oftentimes our comfort zone is exactly where we feel safe. We feel secure. We stick to our routines, the patterns that feel familiar. We avoid anything that might challenge us or make us feel uncomfortable. However, this can also lead to a lack of fulfillment, a lack of growth. And when we stay in that comfort zone bubble, we miss out on the opportunities to learn and discover new things about ourselves and the world around us. Embracing our quirks can help us break out of this pattern by encouraging us to step outside of our comfort zone. When we embrace our unique qualities, we become more comfortable with taking risks and trying new things. We become more open to exploring different aspects of ourselves and the world around us. When we accept and celebrate, our unique qualities were more likely to try new things, take risks, explore different parts of ourselves. Yes, it can be scary. Of course we're putting ourselves out there, but it is a part of truly embracing our unique qualities. But when we do, we can also challenge ourselves and break out of that comfort zone bubble that we've been living in for far too long. Which leads me to my last and final reason.
Number seven Embracing our quirks can help us discover new passions. So when we embrace our unique qualities, we might discover new passions or interests that we never knew we had, like discovering these new passions can lead us to living a life that we never could have imagined. It can genuinely be a way to explore new areas of our life and discover different parts of our life that makes us happy, that makes us so filled. You can think of embracing our quirks as a gateway to discovering new passions and interests that we might have never considered otherwise. By embracing this unique quality, we become more open to trying new things and exploring different aspects of ourselves. For example, if we have a quirky fashion sense, we might start experimenting with different styles or trends that maybe we have never considered before. But by doing that, we might discover a new path, like a new passion for fashion design, and begin to pursue it as a career or hobby. I know someone who did that with home design, like I mentioned earlier, like they're they're in love with like vintage home design that has a past, like things in their house that have a past, that have a history. And they love it so much that they started a blog about it. They started a blog about all these different things in their house and the history behind it and why they create the room that they do in terms of like putting old stuff. It's it's freaking cool. Like, it's so cool to see that someone who is just, you know, venturing into this, like, maybe I could do it, I don't know, like kind of embracing it, like discovering it more then turns into a hobby which potentially could turn into a business long term. Or maybe you love swing music. This is someone that I used to live with in Fort Collins in college. She was in love with swing music, so she joined a group. She decided to go to this like swing dancing group on, I think, Tuesdays, Wednesdays. And I remember her being so scared. She was like, I feel like, sounds so dorky doing this, but it's so much fun. But it was so cool because she I think she went and by the third or fourth week she met this guy and they ended up dating for like two years. And now they're married and they have three kids and it's a beautiful love story, but you just never know. Like maybe the person that you're partnered up becomes your future husband or maybe becomes your best friend. Or maybe you're like, Man, I want to learn more about swing music and I want to be a swing music dancing teacher. Like there's so many paths to what you could do. And it all starts with you just stepping outside your comfort zone and embracing your core, which could lead you to discover a new passion. I think that we oftentimes get stuck in this sort of like what's normal, what's not, what have we done before, what have we not done before? And we're kind of afraid to do anything that doesn't. Fall into the category of normal or what we define normal to be. But I think that the best thing that really allows us to embrace our quirks is it can help us break free from these, like societal expectations And norms. Like these are not constraints that we need or should live by. And when we are constantly embracing these quirks, we're able to work towards breaking free from them forever. Like society tells us what's normal and what's acceptable, and we might feel pressure to conform to these standards. But really, by embracing these quirks, we can challenge these expectations and we can explore our own unique interests and passion, no matter what anybody else says is, at the end of the day, like, no one's going to live in your skin, no one's going to have the desire that you have. And I believe that when we're able to know ourselves, I did a few episodes, a few episodes back, I did a two part series on becoming your own best friend. Like when you truly become your own best friend and you start to learn things about yourself and then start to say, You know what? I want to go for it. Like, I'm going to take a chance on myself. I believe in myself. Like you open yourself up to such a world of possibility and personal growth and striving to become the best versions of ourselves, the most fulfilled versions of ourselves.
And I also want to note that we go through different seasons. Like you might have had some quirks in a previous season that maybe you never embrace, but now, you know, looking back, you're like, Yeah, I'm not really interested in that anymore. But now you're in a different season of life and you're like, Man, this really interests me. Go for it. Like really explore that and ask yourself like, is this something that I'm genuinely interested in? And at the end of the day, like, it doesn't matter what anybody else says because you're the one that's going to experience life in your body. Nobody else will experience life through your lens. Nobody else will experience life in the flesh that you have on the limited time on this earth that we have. So why not make it fun and make it fulfilling?
All in all, I truly believe that when we start to accept ourselves for who we are, we start to embrace these quirks about our. We really start to live a more fulfilling life that can lead to becoming the best version of ourselves and know that that's going to evolve and grow as you evolve and as you grow.
So let me quickly recap the last three of the seven reasons why embracing your quirks is one of the best things that you can do for yourself and the overall well-being of your life. So I talked about number five Quirks can be a form of self-expression. Number six, embracing our quirks can also help us break free from our comfort zone. And number seven, embracing our quirks can help us discover new passions or lead us to meet new people. If you haven't already tuned in to part one, I will link it in the show notes below. But it's episode 332 - 7 Reasons to Embrace Your Quirks. Part one. Again, I will link that in the show notes that you can easily go tune in to that. I hope that you found this helpful. I hope that this is something that maybe just sparks your creativity or your interest in. You can really start to ask yourself like, where? What are the areas in my life that I'm not truly embracing my quirks and how can I start to do that in 2023 as we head into the summer? I love you so much. I mean it. And I'll talk to you next time.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie. A Ledbetter. Yes. It's with an A in the middle for that daily post about real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me and means The Absolute World. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace the real because you're worth it.