Are you living a conforming or nonconforming lifestyle? Do you like the lifestyle you have chosen? Or would you like to reinvent it? Whichever your lifestyle is, you may find some inspiration here to either improve it or change it.
Let’s start by defining these divergent lifestyles.
Conforming Lifestyle
A conforming lifestyle is one that closely aligns with cultural, social, and religious traditions. This lifestyle typically looks like this.
A person with a conforming lifestyle, graduates from high school, goes to college, starts a career, buys a car, gets married, buys a house, has children, works 20-30 years, retires, babysits grandchildren, goes on a dream vacation, and dies. They do this while attending all traditional family gatherings and their children’s and grandchildren’s sporting events, recitals, birthday parties, etc.
Many people choose this lifestyle. Others are pulled into it by an unplanned pregnancy or a naive early marriage. Those who feel they were forced or manipulated into a conforming lifestyle may be nonconformists at heart.
Conformists also typically follow the crowd by…
- Eating an animal-based diet
- Drinking alcohol
- Watching lots of television
- Watching lots of news
- Watching lots of sports
- Exercising sporadically, rarely, or never
Conformists love tradition, security, and consistency.
Nonconforming Lifestyle
A nonconforming lifestyle is one that ignores cultural, social, and religious traditions. Here’s how this lifestyle develops.
People who choose a nonconforming lifestyle go in many different directions. They carve out their own paths. They set their own rules. They establish their own methods, values, and traditions.
They seek innovative, creative, and efficient approaches to living. They are drawn to things like unconventional relationships, invention, entrepreneurship, unique homes, and cutting-edge foods.
Nonconformist also often reject common practices by…
- Eating a plant-based diet
- Drinking little or no or alcohol
- Watching select and limited television
- Watching little or no news
- Watching select and limited sports
- Exercising daily
Nonconformists love independence, self-determination, and adventure.
My Nonconforming Lifestyle
I have lived a nonconforming lifestyle for as long as I can remember. Nothing about a conforming lifestyle has ever appealed to me. So my life has been an adventurous, scary, but fun rollercoaster ride.
I’m not going to bore you with my entire life story. You’ll learn plenty in the articles on this site and at Solotopia. I will, however, tell you about the breakout point of my nonconforming lifestyle.
Tom Sawyer was my hero as a boy. He was the quintessential example of a nonconforming kid. As with Tom, nonconformity is sometimes influenced by circumstances and environment. That was certainly the case with me.
At 15 years old, I was put in jail, juvenile hall, and a boy’s home. My crime? Running away from home, just like Tom. The legal term is incorrigible. I wasn’t doing anything else illegal. No drugs. No stealing. No nothing! Find out why I left home, why I was incarcerated, how my nonconforming mindset manifested, and how my later life turned out in these articles.
- Incorrigible Boy Successful Man
- The Underdog, Black Sheep, & Rebel Advantage
- My Tiny Life
- Strength to Change Within
- Corporate Soldier versus Entrepreneur
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Nonconformity comes in different ways and forms. So even if much of your life might be considered one of conformity, there may be other parts that are nonconforming.
I encourage nonconformity because much of conformity is driven by forces that are often not in our best interest. Forces like religious doctrine, societal rules, and advertising messages are designed to control your behavior for their best interests. Many rules and laws serve the greater good, but some are there only to serve those who create them.
Challenge and question all rules, conventions, and especially conformities.