Pete Greensmith

Recently I have seen an increase in posts telling people to be more ..
Be more *something*
Be more *someone*
Be braver, be smarter, be louder, be smarter.
Be more like other people.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a great believer in role models and self development. A look on my bookshelves or audiobook list will show that. It is hardly a secret that Steve Jobs is a massive role model to me, I listen to a lot of books by successful people.

BUT I don’t want to be more like them.

I want to learn from them, take lessons they have learned, avoid the mistakes the made that led to them learning the lessons. I want to avoid the pain, the failure, the realisation that I did something stupid.

All of this is me trying to better myself, take knowledge, build on it and apply those lessons to myself or my business. Not take short cuts, just cut out some unnecessary diversions.

I have been guilty of sharing some posts on social media around ‘Be more’ and that is what started me thinking of this blog post. Alongside that I started to reflect on the people in day to day life who are my role models and who I respect. What are their behaviours that I would most want to emulate?

For the most part the things I admire are attitudes, behaviours, the way they react to situations and issues. The way they interact with and lift others, even at times when they are busy and focussed on other things.

This has prompted me to start a new list (I never used to be a fan of lists, but I am starting to appreciate them more and more). This is a list of things that I want to be more of.

I won’t share my list as it is early stages and it would be boring (and will change a million times in the near future as my random exploratory thoughts solidify). I will however say that nothing on it is about being more like anyone else.

There are two great quotes/phrases that I see a lot and like.
Be yourself, everyone else is taken – Oscar Wilde
Be yourself unless you can be Batman, then always be Batman

The main thing that has been ringing through my head since I first started to draft this post is the title (that’s why I chose it as the title!). Be. More. You.

My list is all about that. I want to take the parts of me that I don’t like or that I think need work and change them. But I want to keep me.

A lot of the time when I post about self development, reflection, thinking of goals and how we are performing against them, I often say/think – be the best version of yourself.

I am always aiming to be the best version of myself I can be in any given situation. Not to be the version of me that is like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Batman or Sheldon Cooper.

Not to over think, but to go on instinct, that gut feel of what is right and wrong.
That feeling that comes from you. From being you. That defines you.

I will end by asking you a question.
What do you need to do to be more you?