Living up to the others expectations would create internal conflict whereas being exceptional would create an external conflict.
When you fit in and cut your corners to lead your life, you are most probably not living up to your expectations but you are living up to other expectations. You not be living true to your believes and values in life. You are not moving towards realizing your dreams. You most probably are compromising your truth. Hence you would be the state of low grade anxiety and have a sense of not being in control of your life. So in order to compensate for your lack of agency, you would get yourself driving tasks that are important to others or spend time browsing, binge watching, snacking, gossiping etc,. You would give a impression of being busy by doing stuff that is not important and not urgent.
When you are exceptional and making use of your uniqueness, then you are doing what most people are not willing to do. You want most people don’t want in their life. You are willing to raise your standards when everyone is just doing enough to get through the day, you keep showing up, you pick up yourself when you fall down, you have a routine and don’t quit in middle. You see the finish line when majority of people focus on giving excuses and look out for reasons to give up on their decisions. When you are going in a different path, thinking and behaving differently you get different results. When you go against the common thinking of your close family members and when you do something that separates you from majority of the people around, then you will be misunderstood. Many people ignore you or ridicule you or reject you or attack you because you are forcing them to question their self-deprecating beliefs and self-fulfilling prophecies.
~Praveen Jada
*Do read the Disclaimer