All Is Creative: Social Circles Can Make Your Head Spin.

Today i want to talk about the powerful effect social circles can have on creativity. all our interactions with the people in our lives are actually us exercising our own creativity as well as being exposed to theirs. the actions and re-actions we all choose determine our social circles. there are many cliches that come from this such as “you are only as good as the company you keep” or you’ve been “hanging out with the wrong crowd.” what these statements are attempting to summarize, is that the people around you are a reflection of yourself and your growth and your current state of being from moment to moment. perhaps you’ve noticed how big life changes can often change the crowd you hang around with.

“John wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, but he and his high school buddies had drifted apart.”

“Jade was so glad to be out of that relationship, it was really stifling her, but she lost all their mutual friends.”

“Jason wasn’t upset about the others reactions because he knew he was on to bigger and better things.”

Have you ever drifted away from friends or had them drift away from you? Have you ever been in an abusive relationship and left it, or been ejected out of it? Ever seen argument or a fight with friends turn out to be for the best?

So how does all this rhetoric relate to creativity?

NEW-NESS

When most people encounter the word ‘creative’ they generally envision a form of one or more of the following:
-a new process
-a new result
-a new innovation
-a new experience or feeling
-something original
-something unique
-something personal

the common theme here is a ‘new-ness’ of some kind, and what that means exactly may be another article entirely. what i’d like to focus on today is how new people and new social circles can affect one’s own creativity.

arthur – social circle a)
let’s say arthur desires strongly to be an awesome and well-recognized musician. he loves music and feels thrilled when he’s playing it. he’s talented and he has the potential within him to realize this goal, but every day he spends what little money he gets from his retail-wage job on weed so he can then spend his time hanging out with his stoner ‘jam’-buddies and ‘having fun.’ is he taking mature steps towards his goal? most people can see objectively a lot of his time, money, and energy is being funneled into his social circle, which revolves around weed, munchies, and half-assed musicianship.

arthur – social circle b)
now picture arthur seeking out new connections in life, trolling craigslist for driven musicians or graphic artists or befriending an established vocal coach somewhere. now when he’s ‘chilling out’ and shooting the breeze with his friends, its talking about new developments in music technology or awesome cool vocal exercises one can use to improve over a cold beer or a good meal. instead of spending his money on weed, maybe he’s giving it to the highly-deserving vocal coach friend, who is in turn offering arthur a discount because of their friendship.

another example? aw, you guys are the best, i just happen to have one!

marshall – social circle a)
marshall lived in a small town, he’d always been a ‘good boy’ as he was growing up, and didn’t touch alcohol or weed or do anything generally considered ‘fun.’ he went through the motions of school and jobs and so on, but he was mainly aimless and had no real gifts that he could see. he hung around the friends his parents chose for him and became used to it, and so he stagnated. he wrote the odd song or poem to get his angst out and they were okay, but only a handful people saw them and even less appreciated them. we can notice that marshall stagnates and settles for his comfort zone and his lowest-common-denominator social circle, and this sets him up for his lowest-common-denominator creativity.

marshall – social circle b)
now picture marshall boldly leaving the small town, despite the risks, travelling to a big city and meeting a whole bunch of ganja-smokin’ hip-hoppers who freestyled and battled any time they had free. they had connections and had gotten around… some of them were dj’s and producers and talented graffiti artists. they encouraged marshall to smoke up, kick back, and rap with them. the big city is comparitively tolerant and doesn’t bat an eye at ‘corrupting’ a small-town kid like marshall, but because of all this he starts to realize he can rap and his life is in his own hands, not his parents or his towns. his poems and angst become rhymes with a message and a rhythm. he finds relaxation and inspiration from his smoking/rapping sessions with his crew, and is on his way to becoming arthur from the above example or perhaps… the next eminem.

in the above examples . . . social circle a) stifles and holds back creativity, and the subjects allow it to, while social circle b) motivates, inspires, and enhances creativity, and it was up to each individual to seek those connections out or at the very least be open-minded to the possibility.

these are very basic, simplified examples, and many many more factors can be involved, but the main point is this: a very important thing to pay attention to in order to access one’s utmost creativity is the company one keeps. a beautiful thing about it is that it works both ways, if you take a very bold, creative step, you may find your social circle changing because of it. yes! there are examples (shorter one’s, promise!)

BOLD STEPS CAN CHANGE CIRCLES

a) if you leave a job to start your own business or do something awesome in life, you may find much bitterness and resentment from co-worker friends, or you may be subjected to jealousy from others (especially if you succeed in your own business and live life on your own terms.) at the same time you may connect with amazing, wonderful, strong people who support what you’re doing or look at you as an inspirational flame to look up to / learn from.

b) if you take a big step like moving, you may find your social circle changes drastically, but you can’t really fathom going back to the old one (save 1 or 2 awesome friends )

c) if you put a relationship behind you and are suddenly single, you may encounter “he said/she said” drama from friends you visited as a couple. on the other hand you may have your eyes opened up and perhaps go out and mingle more, or hold higher standards, thus meeting many new impressive connections or a mate much better suited to you.

fear of receiving some of the reactions listed above is often a factor preventing people from creating a new life; they may be so comfortable and clingy towards a particular social circle, that they’d rather crush their own dreams than risk a bad reaction from their ‘peeps.’

or they’re worried about sharing their true feelings with close friends because then they “might have a big fight and might lose their oldest friends.”

and that’s fine, that’s where some of us are at in life, which brings us to ‘levels’.

LEVELS

many books and theories see life/human development in terms of levels. Dr. David R. Hawkins in his book Power vs. Force categorizes humans into different ‘levels’ of consciousness (guilt, fear, anger, courage, willingness, reason, love, hope, joy, enlightenment, etc.) and these categorizations may help in understanding our own social circles, but ‘levels’ imply one being higher, or better than the others, whereas i prefer to look at them simply as different.

so instead of looking at our development in life through the device of levels (its all the same thing really, no matter what one labels it,) many people look at life as one long path or journey. following along that analogy it is certainly possible to stop and be distracted by picnickers and lollygaggers briefly “stopping to smell the roses.” or one can walk with a group at the pace they set, or one can run and skip freely ahead of others, or one can build a small hut and stay at that spot on the path for quite a while.

my personal preference has been a combination of most of these, but primarily i enjoy inspiring and encouraging and exciting others to keep pace with me. the thing is, depending on the pace we’re travelling (or growing) at, often times others can get beautifully caught up with us in our slipstream of sorts and get pulled along, other times though, there is no choice but to leave them in the dust, for whatever reason they are really clinging to a certain part of the journey of life, and that is something to respect.

in my life i have held others back and allowed others to hold me back yet i’ve also helped others grow and had others help me grow. i have to say, the growth feels so amazing, i can barely remember ever choosing anything else.

this can shed some interesting light on things like arguments with people that push one away, break-ups, travelling, deaths, births, etc. maybe they’re all merely propelling us forward on the path of life?

if we look back on our life, we can usually notice different social circles. do we repeat the same patterns, does our circle change often? do we bring our circles along with us, inspiring them to grow and be more creative? sometimes it feels scary to examine one’s own life, and sometimes it feels fun…

maybe it’s time to give it a try

thanks for reading