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short stories

Don’t be stagnant or phony

Without the ups and downs in life, we would become stagnant. Are you staying in one place in life? Do you think you can’t do anything other than what you are doing at this point in time? Have you decided you have no other choice than what you see right now? Are you sitting around with your thumb up your bum, figuring this is as good as it is ever going to get? Let’s look at the dictionary term for the word “stagnant” and see what it says.

Stagnant

  1. Lacking freshnessmotion, or flowdecaying through stillness. stagnant pool         stagnant water
  2. (figurative) Without progress or changestaleinactive. stagnant economy stagnant prices                             their love had turned stagnant

Related terms
stagnate
stagflation
Translations (lacking freshness, motion, flow, progress, or change; stale; motionless; still
This text is extracted from the

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license

It doesn’t seem like a term that I want to be involved with; how about you? As seen above, this would be directed to many of us and, in some cases, society itself. Do we wish to fulfill this term within ourselves or society as a whole? I believe the answer to this question should be a resounding No!

How about being a phony? Does this fall into being stagnant? In a way, it does. If you are spending all your time trying to be someone else, then you are stagnant because you aren’t showing who you are. You are helping the one you are imitating avoid stagnation, but you as an individual are going nowhere! You have lost who you are and are now someone else. What happens to your identity, your ideas, and you as a special, one-of-a-kind person? Since you are the phony version of someone else, you are living a stagnant existence.

Let’s look at the term “phony” and see what that says.

Phony

  1. (informal) A person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own.He claims to be a doctor, but he’s nothing but a fast-talking phony.
  2. (informal) A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold.Synonyms: faker, dissembler, pretender, fake, Thesaurus:deceiverHe’s such a phony, he doesn’t believe half of what he says.
  3. (informal) Anything fraudulent or fake.

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license

We should have fresh ideas and show our individualism to those around us. In other words, be yourself and stop trying to be like someone else. You are special in your own unique way. There is only one of you, and you are it! Be proud of your uniqueness, and be proud to show it to others around you. Just because someone has become famous or has a large following doesn’t mean it will work for you. In all actuality, it probably won’t work! If you act like someone else, you are a clone or counterfeit of the one you are trying to be!

Famous people have found their unique ways and used them to their benefit. Those who imitate or impersonate famous ones are just that, “imitators or impersonators.” Will those who imitate others become famous themselves? The answer is “very few.” The ones who do make a name for themselves by imitating others only become famous if they can imitate a multitude of different famous people. And most will only know those people by who they imitate. They are no longer an individual with their own voice, but just a caricature of others. The ones who don’t become famous (and, as I said, there are many of them) may end up as Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas, and that’s about as far as they go. If you want to believe it or not, Elvis died a long time ago, and he was the only one of him who ever existed or will exist in the future. I must say, there is nothing wrong with being an Elvis impersonator. However, to want to be Elvis himself is to remove who you are as a person. So if people in show business find it difficult to become someone by imitating someone else, what makes us think it’s a good idea in regular society?

If we can be ourselves and be proud of who we are, there will be others who will want to imitate us. We can then explain why they are wrong in doing so. I can guarantee one thing that is true in all our lives: If we insist on being ourselves, we will be more successful in life than if we try to be someone else. Don’t be afraid to step up and step out! Let the world meet the real you, and stop hiding in the shadows of others. 

Here is a question for you to think about. Who sets the trend for which clothing is popular at any given time in history? And if that isn’t a good enough question to get my point across, then why do clothing trends come back into style some years after they have gone away? Granted, it may not be an exact replica, but the fashion does come back around at least once before it goes away for good. This can also be seen with long hair versus short hair in men and women. Somebody is setting the trends. Why not be that somebody and let the world follow you?

Who wants to be the same as everyone else? I mean, we are not robots, regardless of how society would like to see us. We are different in many ways from one another, and this makes life exciting. If we were all the same, humanity would cease to exist. We don’t want a mate who is just like ourselves. We want someone who thinks differently in at least a few ways. There is a saying, “Opposites attract.” I’m not a firm believer in this. However, I don’t believe that two people who think exactly alike would get along for very long. If we all thought the same, it would be a very bland world indeed.

So, for us not to fall into a stagnant way of life, we must be ourselves and stop trying to be someone else. We should be a new picture and not just a negative reflection of someone else’s life. Who are you? You are the only you there has ever been and will ever be. Get out of the shadow of others and shine your own light for others to see and appreciate. We were not put on this earth to be stagnant. We were put here to show the world the gifts we were blessed with. You may think that you don’t possess special gifts, and that is why you have become stagnant in life. The truth of the matter is that we all have special gifts. We just need to figure out what our gifts are. 

Woman holding a mask to her face (phony)
Remove the mask & let the world know who you are

Stand up, stand out, and be proud of who you are. Remove the mask that you are hiding behind. Decide to become you and stop trying to be someone else. It’s time for you to decide who you are and get motivated to be the best you that you can be!

Stagnant people are going nowhere, doing nothing, and only knowing who others are but not themselves. Aren’t you glad that you have decided not to live a stagnant life anymore? I am proud to meet those who want to be themselves. I don’t want to meet the imitation, counterfeit, or clone of someone else. I hope I have helped you in some small way today. Please take a couple of minutes and tell me your thoughts in the comments below. Take care, my friends, and remember, we are all in this together!

Author’s note: This post was originally two posts that I combined into one. This may be a mistake on my part. If so, I apologize for thinking around corners. However, I believe adding stagnant and phony together in one post worked out very well. I believe you will get some good information to think about. If you are having difficulty with this post, I suggest you put it aside and let things sink in a little at a time. Afterward, come back and read it again. Remember, this is my way of thinking around corners. I do hope you will let me know if something here has helped you in any way.