Recent discoveries have found that animals exhibit traits once attributed only to humans, like morality and emotion.
However, humans remain uniquely unique among earth’s creatures, with a list of singular characteristics that ensure our distinctiveness.
Humans empathize, and we are known to go out of our way to help and please others.
In fact, children are born helpers and are only taught to ignore others’ needs as they grow.
Humans also show compassion — sacrificing and prioritizing the needs of others.
It is within these core traits that the unique qualities of a person are discovered.
What Makes a Person Unique?
Every human is born unique, affected by biological forces during our nine-month development.
Even identical twins show biological and developmental differences that encourage individuality as they grow.
Uniqueness is a combination of self-identity and social identity – how we view ourselves combined with how others see us.
It is also a combination of what scientists call Nature vs. Nurture or biology vs. environment.
The Nature vs. Nurture debate is a decades-old scientific and sociological discussion on what shapes a personality, innate biological forces or external influences, or both.
Driven by our genetics, our bodies are a combination of instructions from our mothers and fathers, with no two children being alike.
These instructions influence biological and physical traits and are referred to by neuroscientists as Nature.
Some examples of biological uniqueness include
height
intelligence
fingerprints
ear lobes
sound of a voice
disease susceptibility
Originality can also be shaped by environmental factors – such as where we live or how we were raised. These factors are widely referred to as Nurture and can include core beliefs, morality, confidence, and passion. They can even affect IQ and self-confidence.
Studies on adopted children who enter more balanced homes show a clear correlation between IQ, psychopathy, and home environment.
Minimizing environmental chaos and maximizing environmental stability are critical to positive early childhood development.
Whether we focus on Nature’s influence or the nurturing effects of the world around us, it is clear that all of these qualities and traits combine to make an extraordinary individual.
But, how do these qualities define unique things about me?
Unique Things About Me: 17 Qualities That Make You Stand Out
Each of us is our own being. But standing out from the crowd requires accepting those differences and embracing our authentic selves.
So, what traits make a person different? Here are 17 diverse aspects that add to an individual’s uniqueness.
1. Your Life Experiences
The sum total of life experiences shapes a person’s worldview. More than any other trait, a person’s experiences determine their uniqueness.
New experiences irrevocably change our perceptions and physically change our brain, creating new pathways from each new fact learned, person encountered, or task. Even whether they have children influences their behavior.
2. Your Core Beliefs
Life experiences and perceptions also shape core beliefs. These are perceived truths about ourselves and our surroundings based on life experiences and can be inherently positive or negative.
Beliefs about ourselves and others, or the differences between right and wrong or good and evil, are unique. Core beliefs can also include our opinions about ourselves. On the positive side, one can believe they are thoughtful or kind.
Negative core beliefs form the idea that one is a failure or unloveable. Negative core beliefs are harmful and can lead to more severe psychopathy.
Luckily, core beliefs can change over time as new experiences are acquired and old memories are forgotten.
3. Your Intelligence Type
There is more to the intellect than just a high IQ. There are eight different components of intelligence. Each person’s intellect has a unique combination of logical, interpersonal and intrapersonal, naturalistic, and kinesthetic skills.
Just like a recipe, no two cakes are exactly alike. While analytical skills may dominate one’s personality, another may have musical, linguistic, or even spatial judgment — allowing one to sing, speak dozens of languages or even solve complex puzzles with just a glance. Remember the Rubic’s Cube?
4. Your Type of Creativity
Creativity has many different faces. Some of us are good at artistic endeavors, while others have surprising imaginations and are good at fixing things.
At its core, it involves creativity, which is the ability to develop new ideas –utilizing objects and information in innovative ways.
According to Lynne Levesque, Ed. D., in her book, Breakthrough Creativity, there are eight different creative talents, including the adventurer, the poet, the pilot, the inventor, the explorer, the diplomat, the navigator, and the visionary.
Each talent also ranges, ensuring that each person is distinctly creative.
5. Your Personality Traits
Personality reflects characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And for those asking, how do personality traits describe unique things about me?
An individual’s personality traits encompass communicativeness, temperament, attitudes, beliefs, and even daily habits.
These numerous traits, like the ingredients in a cake, each attribute is present in various amounts — combining to make a unique identity.
Often people will be described by their observable traits such as bubbly, quiet, thoughtful, punctual, agreeable, or rude.
6. Your Key Relationships
Like our life experiences, every person has a different set of relationships. From immediate family and co-workers to social circles and intimate partners, these relationships mold and shape our moral center, ideas of right and wrong, goals, and even appearance.
Relationships influence our individuality to form an undeniably unique person.
7. How You Achieve Goals
While individuals can have similar or identical goals, such as getting married or graduating from college, each methodology for achieving those goals is original. And a person’s core beliefs and relationships further define how goals are met.
If an individual’s family is highly competitive during the formative years, their pursuit of success may include a financial component.
However, another individual may have grown up in a more nurturing environment — defining success by their charitable endeavors.
8. Your Level of Confidence
Confidence and charisma are unique characteristics. Self-assuredness and esteem stem from a deeply rooted belief in oneself and one’s abilities. But not everyone is born confident.
Ecobioenvironmental factors greatly influence a person’s self-esteem and confidence levels.
And as an individual learns, communicates, and discovers their authentic self, strength and confidence will grow.
Humor is subjective. Each individual draws on their personal experiences and knowledge to determine what is funny — making humor specific to an individual.
Both nature and nurture contribute to our definition of humor. Individuals who have lived in a large city may find certain situations funny, but those that have grown up in mountain towns do not.
And while some comedians joke about everyday occurrences, others miss the punch line.
10. The Strength of Your Intuition
Intuition is an innate trait that assists in the decision-making process. Some individuals have strong intuition, while others must use logic and reason.
Some studies have linked intuition to a more developed right brain, where visualization occurs. The brain’s left side is associated with facts and logical analysis.
While the left-brain vs. right-brain argument rages on within various scientific communities, there is no doubt that life experiences and training determine our unique approach to rational thought.
11. The Way You Communicate
Communication methods are learned behaviors. They are unique to each individual’s environment and include what we say and how we say it. While rarely considered, effective communication also consists of a person’s actions.
Each person communicates uniquely, reflecting their thoughts, beliefs, and personality. Even the strength and volume of a person’s voice are unique to their way of communicating.
Some people are direct — saying what is on their mind, while others keep to themselves. Quiet, they speak only when necessary or use body language to show excitement or displeasure.
A special train linked to communication is listening. Good listeners hear the words and digest their meaning, while others only hear themselves.
12. How You Perceive Things
Perception is different from seeing. Two people can see the same thing, but everyone perceives life differently.
To see is to record an event visually, but perception accounts for how we experience things and involves our cognitive processes and emotions.
A practical example of the difference is to look at two eyewitnesses to a crime. Both individuals will see the event, but studies show that when interviewed, the individuals will give two very different accounts.
13. Your Individuality
Humans are infinitely diverse creatures. Everyone has individual quirks and flaws. That’s what makes them unique.
But individuality is something more. It is the innate trait that allows us to make independent decisions or choices — to take the road less traveled.
Independence is enormously admirable and found in leaders, teachers, and heroes throughout society. But individuality requires strength of both will and character – the courage of our convictions or beliefs.
And while humans are drawn to the extraordinary, many capitulate to the pressures of conformity and social acceptance. Instead of celebrating the uncommon in ourselves and others, we imitate those around us and give up our individuality.
14. How Curious You Are
Pursuing knowledge can make you attractive as well as unique. Intelligence is fascinating, and many are drawn to those individuals who excel.
Learning also helps develop the whole brain, whether the right side by learning piano or the left by doing crossword puzzles.
Intense curiosity about the world also expands our horizons, allowing us to grow and keep an open mind about different beliefs and cultures.
Learning something new daily grows the intellect and adds to a person’s individuality.
15. How Authentic You Are
The authenticity of personality and self is achieved when a person’s words, actions, and behaviors consistently match their core beliefs.
An authentic self is who a person is deep down and how you are different from everyone else. Genuine personalities rarely change to suit an environment or social construct.
Knowing oneself is an essential part of growing and thriving.
16. How You Develop Opinions
Being opinionated often has a negative connotation. But forming personal opinions, like choosing a moral center or developing core beliefs, adds to our individuality.
Listening to all viewpoints and demonstrating the courage to state one’s perspective is a unique trait.
Following a crowd’s opinions or actions can at the least be boring or at the most dangerous. Unique people know their views and are ready to share and defend their worth.
17. Genetics or Biology
Many people often ask how genetics contributes to “something unique about me?” The easy answer is our genetics.
We are all fundamentally unique. Our bodies are even genetically different, right down to our chromosomes.
Genetics controls how a person carries weight, facial features, hairline, eye color, and more. Research has shown that genetics contributes to 90-99% of individuality.
In addition to these characteristics and traits, the thing that makes a person truly unique is a willingness to explore and accept their authentic self. Individuality is empowering. Indeed, the world’s truly unique people fully embrace who they are — living life in pursuit of their passions.
