Fine tune your understanding. Unique is not different, for different implies different from something that already exists.

Here are a few words on the subject from my book, An Artist Empowered:

As the master has said: art is unique. But that doesn’t preclude aberrations and posers from finding an audience. Unique isn’t a synonym for different; in the same way, being one of a kind doesn’t imply awareness, only curiosity.

Unique for our purposes means original, which is the inevitable and extraordinary outcome of soul awareness.

Some years back a master artist put things into concise clarity by telling me that: “Nothing supercedes character.”

There, in one declarative sentence, he had cut through all the nonsense and density of the world. Here was the essence, the code of conduct, of what most people truly respect, even if they cannot yet put it into words. Here, he drew a line in the sand, the bottom line that showed on which side you stood.

Do you stand for something or are you a fence sitter?

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Understanding is worth revisiting. Here is a handy way of seeing this perspective in whatever you are doing.

In art and writing, the process and the magic is in the journey. But what about the painting or the novel, or the final result of the work? This product is not the goal; the goal is understanding—and understanding is also the booby prize. Your work is the means toward understanding.

Let these concepts simmer until they percolate into your awareness. 

Here is a quote from An Artist Empowered that captures the spirit in art, and everything else:

Change.

It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate,
surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience
and create excitement in life.

Certainly it is worth the risk.

—Leo Buscscaglia

Some years ago, while I was writing An Artist Empowered, I asked Julia Cameron (author of The Artist’s Way) for her take on handling rejection, and all the other garbage that might fall in your path.

She told me the following, which is worth reading and doing as often as necessary.

My personal formula is this: Rejection becomes opportunity when ‘Why me?’ becomes ‘What next?’