How to Be a Positive Deviant
I recently came across a term that has really caught my interest. Positive Deviance. It almost sounds like an oxy-moron since in our society the “deviance” or being a “deviant” has rarely carried a “positive” connotation. So what the heck is positive deviance? According to Wikipedia, Positive Deviance (PD) is:
“an approach to personal, organizational and cultural change based on the idea that every community or group of people performing a similar function has certain individuals (the “Positive Deviants”) whose special attitudes, practices/ strategies/ behaviors enable them to function more effectively than others with the exact same resources and conditions.”
That’s a mouth full! Essentially its someone who, under the same circumstances, with the same tools and resources and everyone else around them, creates a positive change. It’s to deviate from the pack but the deviation is a positive one, thus creating a better life/situation – a better lifestyle
Hmm? Are you a positive deviant?
Maybe you’re on your way. After all, the process by which one becomes a positive deviate is through personal development and lifestyle design. You literally design and create a new situation, a new life.
The term, positive deviance, has been attributed to the health science arena but I think it relevantly applies to personal development and lifestyle design as well.
From a personal development aspect, here are some tips on how to become a positive deviant (should you dare carry the title)
- Change your mind. That’s it. DECIDE to be different, decide to be better. Decide you deserve more. Changing your mindset is a topic that requires a full post of its own so we’ll go into more detail on it later. But basicsally you have to change your mind and make a decision. I had no dang clue how to build a blog/website, how to design it, how to monetize, how to build traffic. But I DECIDED I was going to do it and took relevant instant action t make it happen
- Take an inventory of your past. What consistent issue do you see? What results have you been getting? Remember the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Make a list of all of the old behaviors, habits activities that have been giving you negative results and next to it the new behaviors, habits and attitudes required to achieve the desired results. To paraphrase Debrena Jackson Gandy in All the Joy You Can Stand, ask yourself, who do I have to be to have these things (READ this book, it will change your life. It’s available in Products & Resources). Nothing in your life will change, until you change.
- Seek out deviants (of the positive nature). Find a mentor, life coach, someone who has been there and has the goods to show for it. Identify four to six people who have achieved an unexpected good outcome despite high risk and circumstances. My life completely changed when I encountered life coach/mentor extraordinaire, Shanel Cooper Sykes.
- Interview and observe these people to discover uncommon behaviors or enabling factors that could explain the good outcome. Have you read Secrets of The Millionaire Mind, or Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Successful people literally act and think differently. Identify these.
- Design behavior change activities to encourage change and the new you. Take some Action, based on what you’ve seen and learnt. You can know all of the right things to do and say, but if you don’t do and say them…….I’ll leave the conclusion up to you
- Monitor implementation and evaluate the results. Remember, Failure Is Impossible, you either succeed or you learn something to make your net step a better one. As you are implementing these new habits and life changes, stop ever so often and analyze if it’s working. If not readjust and keep going. Schedule this “check in”.
When you decide to step out of what you know, what you grew up in, what you were taught – you’re in a process of personal development and morphing into a deviant, a positive deviant.
Develop those special attitudes, practices, strategies and behaviors that will enable you to function more effectively and, dare I say again, break away from the pack.
Are you a positive deviant?
