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Breaking the Mold: Be Yourself

Janelle McSwiggin, MSN, RN

We spend a lot of time comparing ourselves to others. They say “comparison is the thief of joy”. And I think they’re right. The more time we spend comparing ourselves to other people, the less time we spend celebrating ourselves and our accomplishments.


What we should be doing is celebrating what makes us unique! This article is going to dive into why being different can actually work for your advantage.


Focus on Yourself

Don’t get wrapped up in what everyone else is doing. Don’t be intimidated by everyone else’s accomplishments and background. Instead, you should be


focusing on yourself. Play to your strengths!


Make sure you’re always wording your resume, cover letter, and discovery calls to highlight your accomplishments. So what if you don’t have ten years of experience writing? You have 8 years of bedside experience! That’s a unique experience no one else has. Capitalize on that.


You have Different Strengths

Every writer is different. Your interests will be different from your colleagues. So, you may not want to write the same deliverables, or work within the same niches.


And that’s actually a good thing. That means you can pass work off back and forth without competing. If you get a deliverable that’s just not interesting, reach out to someone in your network who may enjoy that type of work. I guarantee they’ll play it forward one day.



Not only will you have different interests, you’ll also have different strengths. You may not be a visual learner, and that’s fine! But you may have a friend who is great with infographics. You could team up together. She could create the infographics and you could write all the content.


Remember: Not everything is a competition. And not every difference is a weakness. You have some pretty amazing interests and strengths that set you apart from the rest of your peers.


You Have Your Own Niche

Once you know your interests and your strengths, you can start looking at different niches and deliverables. The writing world is vast. There are tons of different deliverables you can write. Then, there are different topics you can write about. This means everyone can find their place based on their personal interests and strengths.


Once you start celebrating your accomplishments and natural traits, you’ll start to figure out what type of writer you want to be. At first, I thought I just had to be a technology writer. It’s where “all the money is”.


But I absolutely hate technology. In my personal life, I’d rather shut my phone off and sit in silence by my pool. I wrote a single tech article, and figured out very quickly that it wasn’t quite for me. I wasted that time onboarding a client and writing about a topic I knew I would hate just because other people liked tech.


If I could go back, I would have just focused on what I liked instead: Neurology and infectious disease.


Your Own Work Experience

No one has the same work experience as you. You’ve spent years taking care of patients in some way or another. Even the smaller, mundane tasks you know may be wizardry to someone unfamiliar with your specialty. Capitalize on that.


Never undermine what you’ve done in your career. There are publications that are going to be over-the-moon to have a healthcare worker on their staff. This is mainly due to your work experience. There’s not many people who have their fingers on the pulse like a healthcare worker does.


Summary

Instead of comparing yourself to others, be proud of who you are. Reflect on your background to understand your strengths. Then, capitalize on your education, interests, and work experience to find your perfect work experience.


Life is too short to try to fit into a mold that isn’t meant for you. Instead, make space for yourself and the clients will follow.


Are you ready to dive into writing? You can check out my course here.


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I had a wonderful experience working on my article with Janelle. The programs she offers are a blessing to new writers. Janelle was professional, communicative, and very positive in my process. She quickly responded to any questions and provided me with knowledgeable feedback along the way. I highly recommend Janelle

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