Find Your Inner Unicorn

Everyone is totally obsessed with the Unicorn. Being the Unicorn girl. The Unicorn boy. The Unicorn relationship. Holy Unicorn. That’s so Unicorn. The mystical, beautiful creature, the legendary beast that doesn’t exist but tantalizes us all. 

But in our attempt to be the unicorn… we get lost. We look at the people who are killing it and doing amazing things and we think to ourselves “They’re successful and happy because they have things I don’t have. I’d never be able to do that or be that. There’s nothing special about me.” Put that tape on repeat for a few weeks or even years, and you have yourself a bona fide identity problem. It turns into to a quest to look like someone else. It becomes a path to trying to be like others – fitting in. Talking like them. Wearing what they wear even if you don’t feel great in it. Doing your hair a certain way even though it takes up your whole morning. Saying things a certain way. Hanging out with certain people because you think it’ll mean something about who you are. This trajectory, as you can imagine, begins to spiral. You question the things you say and the decisions you make constantly.

And one day you wake up and realize you don’t have a damn clue about who you are. Trust me, I’ve done this. In my early twenties I woke up in a career path I didn’t want with hair color that wasn’t mine in a city that didn’t light my soul. I judged myself for not being as cool. As skinny. As [fill in the blank]. 

It’s a painful realization, this wake up call. And it’s one that can be mitigated by remembering one, simple fact:

You are the unicorn.

You are the Unicorn that frolicked across the Lisa Frank School Supplies. You are the Unicorn in the Harry Potter forest. You are the Unicorn Beanie Baby. You are the Unicorn because you exist.

You have unique qualities that are waiting to shine. The way you talk. Your interests. What you like to wear. Being fully in your skin. The way you laugh. And what you bring to the table. Being a full expression of you allows you to find that inner unicorn. It’s just waiting until you get comfortable with yourself to come out. It’s waiting for you to stop trying to be everyone else.

Getting there isn’t always the easiest thing. Sometimes it’ll mean not being accepted by everyone. It may put you on the fringe a bit. And it might mean that the people you’re always around may change. But a crazy thing will happen when you start to embrace who you really want to be: the people who love that about you begin to be attracted. People start to eye you for being a smash hit. For being so unapologetically yourself. And you’ll begin to inspire them to be the same way.

And finding your inner unicorn doesn’t mean that you revoke everything society says. But you begin to incorporate things into your life that you love no matter what other people think. You say “good for her” instead of feeling the pressure of “oh I need to do that too.” 

We all love Carly because she is unapologetically herself on the good days and the bad. We love Oprah because she shouts in the most amazing reverend voice possible. We love Jlaw because she says out loud all the things no one else does. We love and are drawn to people who embrace who they are, instead of trying to be someone else.

But more importantly, people who are fully, blissfully themselves…they make a dent. They allow their differences to be the way they contribute, which I write about more in this post. They become leaders in whatever they put their minds to because they’re unique, identifiable, and magnetic. They embraces their differences to make a difference.

You can walk down that path too, but only once you let go of the pressure to be something and instead choose to be you. 

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