Conformity... NOT the best policy!

This blog post is brought to you by Shelley Giard... 

Rebellious in nature, kind at heart. Leader, lover, rule breaker, box squashing extraordinaire!

I woke up a bit tired, but even when my brain is tired it still ticks. Low and behold as I was driving my daughter to school and after only 1/2 cup of coffee, a thought popped in my head which prompted a Shelley "quote" and hence a topic for my morning blog post (I owed a morning one to my readers since I was too tired to blog last night.) I quickly spoke into my cell phone to log the idea and here I am now... finishing my cup of coffee and writing to you.

Conformity by definition: 

1: Compliance with standard, rules, or laws

2. Behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards

BLEGH! That just sounds BORING! Now, I am not saying that you should forfeit the obedience of all laws and rules... that would be a bit of a stretch and quite scary. However, being socially standard... or caring what other people think of you "socially" can be taken too far. My thought is this... BE YOURSELF, be who you are and there are people who will love you for that. If you are rebellious? I love you. I am too. I would not have accomplished HALF the stuff I have in my life if I had not broken rules, taken chances that were feared by others around me and I certainly began to care less and less about what people thought of me as I grew up... as long as I was being true to myself . Because of this, I have earned respect from people who used to hate me and have awesome friends who love me for ME. That is golden! ( a few hater too but they don't matter)

I wish I could find the time to run for office... (totally joking) I hate politics... but I do feel very strongly about certain things one being teaching people to conform when we should do just the opposite. I would insist on schools teaching our kids how to be safely rebellious, to think outside of the box, to be a leader, not a follower. They would be much better business people and a thriving economy would  not be a bad thing. I would insist on teaching them to be yourself and care less about what others think as long as you are being respectful, kind and diplomatic with the delivery of your opinion. I have had haters in the past who don't appreciate my blunt nature.. and that's okay, I am not for everyone and neither are you. Fact is though, people who embrace it love it, they KNOW that if they ask my opinion they will get the truth; no sugar on top. 

At some point when you are speaking, you need to sit back and listen to yourself and ask... is what I just said or about to say a statement of WHO I AM? If you do this, you will know how true to yourself you are. So many people walk around with their "fake" goggles on that they don't even know who they are anymore. They are trying to impress people they don't even like... how ridiculous is that? Anyway... my point is this.... (my Shelley quote for the day)

"Such irony that we are brought up to conform... to follow the leader and abide by rules; only to learn later that the most successful people are often rebellious rule breakers who lead instead of follow. Perhaps conformity is NOT the best thing to teach." ShelleyGiard2012

Love you all, thanks for reading! 

XOXO 

~Shells~

"I prefer to live in a cone... it is open ended and you can fill it with anything you want!" ShelleyGiard2011