7a Be someone you would look up to.

 Someone Not Something By R.T. Vance 2005

It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone. - Coco Chanel

Over the years I have found that people for whatever reason, decide that they need to become what the social norm is, or what their group is. This was rather frustrating for me because I would watch my friends be a different person around girls than they were as a bunch of guys! I found it difficult enough to be who I was trying to be and found that being consistent across the board was far easier than trying to impress people. I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else, I'm saying what worked for me because God knows I'm not perfect and my troubles are neither simple or small for my current evolution but they are what makes me me. 
I have found that as people struggle to find who they are that in general, they wish to travel the path of least resistance, I won't insult you saying that I don't; I'll spend hours thinking about how to make a 5-minute project easier for the next time I need to do it, I have mastered the art of least resistance. Following the path of least resistance bring you to questions of morality and character. While I've mastered the art of least resistance in work. I pride myself on being constancy in matters of person, I will not be a different person because society says that I shouldn't be a 'someone' rather than a 'something'. I want to be different than the cookie-cutter people that always do what the group does afraid to do what they want, or be what they want. A something person is going to act and dress and behave the way that the people around them do. A Someone Person makes their own decisions and follows their own motives, sometimes they will do the very unpopular things and they will take hell from the people that are 'somethings.'

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.- Charles Caleb Colton

'Somethings' Goals are simple to become what others feel they should be, offer the least resistance. If you don't like what 'Something A' is doing but "hey they're cool!" So you decide to go against what your guts are telling you and become a sheep. Slowly your life becomes out of control and you forget who you are. You lose your individuality and in such lose your agency. They want everyone to be in the state they are so they mock and attack those who don't fall into their professed self-imposed serfdom, I say serf because they have become a slave to an image. I'll include in this group those who are so opposed to Group A that they join Group B so they don't have to become Group A, C, D, E or F. Rebels would be a good example of this, they rebel against anything simply for being disagreeable. They are no more free than anybody else, they have a need to break rules, see how far the limit actually is. From experience it is not fun, eventual you begin to act a way to keep up a reputation, and then self is gone. 'Someones' Goals are simple, be what they choose to be, disregarding the person, social, and physical consequences. While the majority people are by my best estimation are suppressed heroes, they feel a yearning to help when others are in pain or in need but fail to act because of the what if's (everybody has them: what if they have a gun, what if somebody sees me. . . ); 'someones' are they who act on the yearning. They may be the good-goody Christians but they do it by choice, not because they feel they have to. These people will be the ones who stand up for the targets of the 'somethings' thereby resulting in a target themselves. These people are the everyday unsung heroes, being someone is very frightening and very lonely at times.

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.- Anonymous

I can already hear you saying "I made the choice I'm not a something!!!" Did you give into the fear of "If I don't do this they won't accept me!" or "If I don't do this I'll be alone!" The fear of being alone is a great motivator the devil has, and it is a very good stumbling block at times it has even gotten me to trip up and do what I shouldn't.

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.- Phillips Brooks

Throughout the trials of my life, I have found out who my friends really are by the way they react to choices I've made that go against the main body of thought. Those that mock your choice, belittle your individuality, they are "somethings!" If a person does not respect your individuality or your sense of self, are they really a friend?

A friend is one who sees through you and still enjoys the view.- Wilma Askinas

That only which we have within, can we see without. If we meet no Gods, it is because we harbor none. If there is a grandeur in you, you will find grandeur in porters and sweeps. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Path to 'someone'-dom is difficult and rocky it is the road less traveled and really the only road that leads somewhere. It is a road that is a constant uphill climb and can only be seen as worth it, when you've progressed for a time and looked back to enjoy the view. It is painful and at times very lonely, but these people are those who in the end find the most happiness out of life. 
I have strived to live my life in a manner that as I lay dieing I will not be haunted by the face of the people that I have mistreated. I have received much contention from my peers, but I know that they respect and maybe even envy me because I don't follow the crowd, they've told me so with more persecution. I have had some of those who had once caused me much grief come to me and ask how in the midst of all the hell they had given that I was still who I wanted to be when I could have ended the pain by joining their ranks and causing it to others. I didn't know exactly how to answer, I do now! "I did what I felt was what I needed to do, to not sacrifice others for self!"

The nearest way to glory -- a shortcut, as it were -- is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.- Socrates, quoted in Cicero, 44 BC.

When I made those decisions in my High School years I didn't know the effect it would have on me today. Because I wasn't part of a clique, I was able to meet a great deal many people, and effect the lives of many more. People have come up to me to tell me that something I did changed the path of their life. (Okay it hasn't happened as much as I make it out to be but It has happened a time or two.) I also had those who I looked up too, that disregarded the social restraints of clique, they taught me about character and I tried to strengthen my character following their examples, without without losing self. It most certainly was a difficult time being constant and true to myself but I've found that it was worth it.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt

For me it was a matter of being myself, and never accepting that I wasn't able to achieve what I wanted to be. When you are happy with who you are, the people around you can tell and they become enthralled in your aura. When you carry glory with you, you radiate it, it can't be ignored. People will be pulled to you, when you are not afraid of who you are people notice! They notice the simplicity of character, they learn to rely on the consistency for which you live your life. People like consistence, and dependability; steadfastness are character trait that people will always find as comforting and attractive.

I am far from the status I would like to be at, I to am a work in progress! Nobody can achieve self over night. Everybody has moments of weakness that they struggle to follow heart, and react to the fear. It is the resovle that says "Okay I didn't do it this time but next time I will," that makes the difference.

Freedom, by definition, includes freedom to do good or evil, to act nobly or basely. Thus we should not be surprised that thereis a considerable amount of vice, licentiousness, and vulgarity in a free society. Given the warped timber of humanity, freedom becomes a forum for the expression of human flaws and weaknesses. But if freedom brings out the worst in people, it also brings outthe best. The millions of Americans who live decent, praise worthy lives deserve our highest admiration because they have opted for the good when the good is not the only available option. Even amidst the temptations that a rich and free society offers,they have remained on the straight path. Their virtue hasspecial luster because it is freely chosen. The free society does not guarantee virtue, any more than it guarantees happiness. But it allows for the pursuit of both, a pursuit rendered all themore meaningful and profound because success is not guaranteed, it has to be won through personal striving. --Dinesh D'Souza

Remember people will always have the right to make choices and they may not make the choices that you agree with. That doesn't mean they are any less of a 'someone' it means they have chosen to live a different path. I have chosen to offer the 'someone' path that my religion would prescribe to, in the hopes that it is what all people would choose, without forcing it on them. So long as fear is not your motivator then you are a 'someone' as much as I dislike saying it.
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My uncle gave me a book one day that was titled 'As a man thinkith'. The general moral of this book is that to do great things you must think great things. No loser in thought is able to produce great things, not even by chance and they wouldn't know what they had if they did.
I have experienced this, I know this to be true. The power of positive thought is able to bend the steel-willed nature of the world to you. As you progress and move forward with steadfastness and an unwillingness to give up, you begin to grow stronger in your knowledge of yourself. You become more able to look at the world as it is, something meant to be defeated; and not as it seems, an insurmountable dragon.
Anything you desire enough you can attain, so long as it is worthy before God. If you desire to be successful in business, or in a hobby, or as a mother or father. If your desire is enough an your strength and devotion to this cause great enough you can achieve anything you desire. You may have to create more manageable goals, even a daily to do. Yet any dream and any desire is fully attainable. You must decide what you are willing to sacrifice in order to attain your goals, sleep, friends, social life... but if you want something it is fully attainable to any man, woman or child!
The power you have in you is constant, you are the most powerful force known to man. Nuclear power is as a whole destructive, even as it lights millions of homes it gradually loses power in itself; it poisons what it touches... it isn't you! As you become positive in your interactions with people around you. As you become able to look at the challenges that often Grace this existence you will come to know yourself, and you will become a light to others. You will come to a personal and healthy pride in your ability to manage the unforeseen storms in life, accomplish your goals and become successful in life... it builds on itself, grows stronger, and unlike Nuclear power it can not be destructive; in math positive can never yield a negative, so to in life being positive can never yield a negative overall outcome. You will have setbacks, and hardships and see times when you would much rather give up than carry on, keep to your goals. Keep positive as negative things happen to you; and you will have great success in life.
So like a Sea Fairing Vessel new and untested, you must sail in the stormy waters to prove that you are indeed worthy to be called a ship. Perhaps you are unable to see yourself as a ship just yet. Even a Canoe requires that it be taken out on the water to show that it can be buoyant on the tumult of the life it was born to live. It must cross raging rivers, and the depths of great lakes; Gradually as your faith in yourself increases you will find that you are actually able to displace far more than the canoe you picture yourself as...
As you develop the ability to see things positively you will come upon people who were unable to see themselves in a positive light. As you are sailing on the sea's tempest do not be afraid to stop and pluck these people in to service in crewing your ship. Teach them, teach that they are also ships built to sail the sea. Teach them how to build there own ships, show them what it is to be happy. You will find more happiness and more ability to be happy as you do this. To do this you must love them, and love yourself
People more than anything need someone to believe in them, something more than a God. When one person believes in them they are willing to start to make the changes that they desire in their life. People like being able to go to the someone that they had believe in them and say 'Look, Look what I have accomplished." Then the two can celebrate this together. Gradually as they become stronger and more willing to take the world on on their own you will find they two start to help others, they will begin to teach others.
An interesting thing happens when you see these people go on and become successful in life. You begin to look up to them, as they looked up to you. Their success and greatness as they go through their struggles in life leads you to admire them and their strength. You begin to see them as equals and see them as more. You begin to lend each other strength in your times of need. Champions in each others cause!
You are only as successful, happy, and great as you choose to be. Once you decide to be this never allow anyone to tell you differently!