“Not fitting in is definitely a good-enough reason to move on.” I couldn’t agree more with this article and as we begin the year 2020, and a new decade, it seems especially fitting (pun intended) to seek some R&R: rebalancing and realignment. Many HSPs, because we grew up feeling like we didn’t fit well with our social environments tended to have developed psychological complexes about ourselves that perpetuate themselves throughout life.
At work, we often find that that the social environments contain the same sort of implicit hierarchy that high school did with exclusive groups, cliques, and tribes separating people from each other; all artificial, of course, but subscribed to with great gusto by humans in workplaces. We HSPs tend to prefer meaningful work that engages our need to think about problems deeply and develop solutions. Being innately creative, something espoused by Dr. Elaine Aron when she said that HSPs are creative by definition, meaning deep thinking, noticing subtleties, being empathic and open, even curious, are cornerstones of creativity, implies that the types of environments HSPs do best in will, of necessity, be somewhat different than for those without the trait.
Too often, we HSPs think so little of ourselves and feel we are the ones who have something to prove to others, or we just shut down and numb ourselves to mundane repetition and monotony. Now is the time to take some R&R for yourself! Now is the time to consider Rebalancing and Realigning our lives to fit us better!
The reason that you do not fit in at work is because you aren’t like other people! You are one of the 15-20% who are highly sensitive and probably are evolved to exist on the fringes of tribes, groups, and societies. Healers, artists, shamans, advisors, thinkers, and educators are all people who bring a broader approach to life that embraces complexity, seeks the big picture of connections, implications and consequences, while guiding those efforts in service of growing and developing our own capacities and the potential of others. We are creative by definition because we direct creativity at our own inner world of transformation and realization, the highest use of creativity.
If you feel that you do not fit in at work, or in your life, now is a great time to invest in yourself! There will never be a regret from developing your capacities, from growing your potential, or from planting and cultivating seeds of opportunity. INVEST IN YOURSELF in the ways that will generate new opportunities for you that will allow you to set up the type of life that does not ask you to fit into it; rather, it fits you because you have custom designed it to do so.
How will you invest in yourself in the 2020’s?
Please share!
Thrive: The Highly Sensitive Person and Career
Thrill: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person
Dr. Tracy Cooper 