The value of being a creative weirdo
Aiming for authenticity over social validation
To some degree, being perceived as strange, odd, weird, or misunderstood is a prerequisite for creative professionals. And in many ways, we are expected to be eccentric. After all, to be highly creative, one has to think differently and break the rules to develop new ideas and formulate unique connections to solve problems.
This innovative thinking manifests itself in the way we interact with the world and is a natural extension of our creative expression. However, such distinct character traits can create friction and disruption if one tries to achieve social validation or conformity — potentially sacrificing our creative integrity and authenticity to fit in.
Teenage Idiot
I have been a natural creative since the day I was born. I was known as the class artist throughout my childhood and teenage years— a label that I resented towards the end of my high school experience.
According to the unwritten high school social hierarchy handbook, being placed in the artist category sealed my fate of never being one of the popular or cool kids. Add into my backdrop having only one friend stranger than me and my family’s poverty-level income status, and I was the stereotypical eccentric loner artist straight from your favorite classic teen movie.
As a naive young teenager, I desired more than anything to be one of the popular kids. I joined sports teams and dressed the way the cool kids did, but none of these strategies worked. I could never shake my inherited weirdo artist character.
So my senior year, I did something radical. In a last-ditch effort to alter my persona and be perceived as one of the cool guys, I refused to design the school yearbook cover. I had convinced myself that my artistic nature was at the core of my undesirable social status. This move was somewhat of a shock to many since drawing and creating art was a skill that defined me.
However, this shallow plan produced by my underdeveloped prefrontal cortex teenage brain never worked out. I still graduated as an eccentric loner artist. The only difference was I gave up my authenticity for the potential veneer of social validation.
Looking back on this memory, I wish I had designed that cover. Throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the pursuit of conventional popularity was a regrettable and misguided strategy.
As I have grown older and wiser, I have learned to embrace and value my perceived weird persona associated with my highly creative and intuitive thinking style. And along the way, as a means of navigating the superficial social complexities of life, I have discovered methods to understand better what drives people to see others as odd and unusual.
Weird Patterns
Stereotypes
There are several reasons why the social collective perceives certain people as weird. The obvious one that shaped my childhood was category stereotypes. The notion that our looks, behaviors, or talents can define how people perceive us is nothing new. Movies and books tend to expose us to these surface-level notions of character identity and personas. The jocks are always popular and handsome, the smart kids are nerdy and nonathletic, and the artists are weird misunderstood loners. Of course, in reality, we see individuals who transcend these molds all the time. Unfortunately, these abstract standards sometimes define who we think we are before looking inside ourselves for genuine answers.
Ignorance
When it comes to viewing others as different, some people are oblivious to why an individual may express or present themselves in a way that falls outside the scope of social norms. In many cases, people perceived as odd can possess psychological or physical conditions that contribute to their unusual appearance or personality. Some individuals viewed in this manner have little control over their perceived flaws, but that does not stop the cruel world from exposing them to toxic behaviors and outcomes.
Jealousy
The notion that someone may be jealous of a person they perceive as odd may appear counter-intuitive, but there exists something appealing about those brave and confident enough to break social standards to express themselves as individuals. Similar behavior by bullies occurs when they take out their insecurities on others.
Social Harmony
The last and somewhat more complex reason people see others as weird has to do with social harmony. Some people are uncomfortable when certain behaviors and appearances disrupt predictable environments and scripted narratives.
For example, if you observe a beach on a nice summer day, people will be walking around in bathing suits and typical summer outfits. However, if someone comes along wearing a business suit and tie and begins to go for a swim, most people would perceive this individual as odd. However, if you changed the context and observed someone showing up to a business meeting wearing a swimsuit, that individual would also be considered weird — right before being escorted from the building.
We can think of social behaviors as patterns. And people are sensitive to pattern changes — just as certain people can recognize when a physical room gets modified or how others feel emotionally. Many of us are keen on these variations, and sometimes our reactions are unavoidable when these patterns get disrupted. Weird individuals can have this effect within the predefined social fabric we wrap ourselves with.
Aligning your Values
We can not fundamentally alter the way others perceive us. However, there are techniques to improve our confidence and authenticity, which can lead to a positive perception by the most important person of all, yourself.
The first method towards achieving authenticity is to improve self-awareness. This mental exercise of internal reflection serves to understand better what drives us to function in oddly perceived manners. Self-awareness requires self-examination using honest, non-judgmental self-analysis. This practice allows you to know yourself, understand your motivations, and ultimately make better decisions.
The second and more complicated process of improving one’s creative weirdo confidence integrates individual values to be truly authentic.
The notion of aligning your values and actions is not a new idea. During the late 1800s, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche postulated the concept of discovering our deep personal values and motivations and manifesting them through our actions. And during the early 1900s, Carl Gustav Jung, a German psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst experimented with the notion of integrating the conscious and subconscious mind as a method of developing our true self.
These approaches require you to be honest with your values and align them with your behavior and actions. It is a form of intellectual honesty that will come across and authentic and respectable if appropriately integrated.
Of course, some people pretend to be weird as a way of attention-seeking — this behavior screams insecurity. And those who express themselves this way either lack awareness of who they are or do not like the person they have self-discovered and mask it through an artificial persona.
Conclusion
Highly creative people will never truly fit in with the rest of society, which is a good thing. They are the innovators and help push us forward into the unknown. They must never succumb to the social conformity of blending in or becoming who they are not. To some degree, we must all embrace who we are as unique individuals and focus on maturing our authenticity instead of becoming obsessed with social validation.
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