Who would have thought that I would take away something other than finance knowledge from a financial class?

Hubs and I are taking a financial course at our church called Financial Peace University. If you’ve heard of Dave Ramsey, you know exactly what it is, and it’s really been awesome so far!

The one thing from it that has stuck with me lately is essentially their mantra: “Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.”

It’s a powerful statement if you think about it. They tag on “and give like no one else” at the end too because the goal is to be so financially secure (through means of living different and handling your money in unique ways) that you have an excess in money to be able to donate to charities and help others in need. A very worthy goal indeed.

But I got to thinking about it. Living like no one else to live like no one else doesn’t just have to be about money.

What about your health? Your marriage? Your whole life? When we look at the way the majority lives, a lot of us spout off these pipe dreams about how we want to be different, how our lives are going to be different, and basically how we won’t settle for ordinary.

But the truth is, if we live like everyone else— then we’ll live like everyone else. It doesn’t matter what dream you have or what you want to achieve, if you do what’s not working or what leads down a path of mediocrity, that’s all you’ll end up with.

It’s truly insane if you think about it. What makes us think that if we do the same exact things that a lot of people are doing with their lifestyles, we’ll end up with a different outcome? Isn’t that the definition of insanity? Just because you’re you and you’re “special” or you’re a “dreamer” and have “potential” doesn’t mean that you get away with not working hard or changing your ways to achieve the life you want.

And we know it’s true. The kids in high school who worked their tails off got into better colleges than those kids who were just goofing around.

Life’s like that now. But on a different scale.

To be truly healthy, you can’t do what everyone else is doing. You need to make big changes, rewire your way of thinking, retrain your behaviors and teach your kids healthy lifestyle habits that you didn’t even know until you were older.

In America, if you’re going to live a disease-free, obesity-free, long life—you have to live differently. You have to be different. You have to LIVE like no one else.

If you want your marriage to last and not end in divorce like the 60-something percent of Americans—you’ve got to do life differently. LIVE like no one else.

It’s not going to be easy. In a world where we often try to “fit in “from the time we enter kindergarten, it can be hard to shake the idea that you’re doing something “drastic” or “weird” in the eyes of our peers. Even if you don’t care what other people think, it’s always hard to go against the flow when so many people are going against you (even if it’s not intentional).

Living like everyone else may be “easy” or at least familiar—but it’s not only boring, it’s a dead end.  It’s truly time to live like no one else and have that ever after we all deserve. But you’ve got to make changes.

If you want a different ending, you have to have a different now. You need commit to living like no one else with the goal of living like no one else.

Otherwise, you’ll just end up like everybody you said you wouldn’t be like.

How do you live like no one else?