Making It Count With The Courage To Take Creative Action

Creativity is about finding new ways to look at things and then acting on them according to the novel thinking. Metaphors and flow-charts can be created that guide us through processes and progress, images and stories can be created to apply knowledge across universal circles. Courage is about action, moving through the anxiety and fear by stating your ideas, acting on them, and speaking up when needed. We solve problems by being creative and the right solutions take account of the whole situation. The way forward is directed by the reality of the entire situation and the limitations that it applies. A goal can be in any direction provided it lubricates healthy society and culture. Resistances and frictions are the opportunities for creative input and novel ways of taking responsibility.
 
It takes courage to be able to look at the whole situation and not just the situation from your perspective. Other people will have their own versions of the story and their own ideas about what the end results should look like. The behaviours and systems that result in the situation will be rooted in a dynamic and shifting consensus that always needs to be addressed. It may feel like our views are the ones that are important because of the way we think about them however society is a complex system of many people who each have their own direct reasoning with an equally as vibrant passion for their experience.
 
Because of the possible conflicts of interest and ideal, it’s important to be confident and know your intrinsic worth. Being spoken over and dismissed is a possibility and you need to be prepared to address this calmly and confidently. A creative solution may require new methods of communication and expression that speaks to others in ways they recognise and can respect. The same works for us, too. We may conflict with the interests and ideals of others and be a source of friction and resistance. Understanding the reasoning for their ideas can be difficult if we’re passionate about their antithesis. Because society involves the fluid working of diverse groups, it’s best to look for the logic and ration in their argument and then using that to make your point sound more valid. We need to address the light of it and not the shadow of it as its hardly ever our intention to cast the shadow even though it’s inevitable.  
 
Everyone is a human being with a distinctive history and set of mental pictures that define the way they behave and the things they aspire towards. We all have our own pain points that cause us distress and we have reward senses that help us achieve personal success. These things vary from person to person and community to community. Because we don’t necessarily think and feel in the same way it can be difficult for us to get the idea someone is trying to portray. This means we must be available to humanise situations and accept the rich tapestry on offer rather than tick a box or simply deny relevance. If it’s relevant to them then it’s relevant to the bigger situation they are a part of in equal measure. It can be brave to let go of our predispositions and allow ourselves to validate another person’s point of view.
 
The grey areas are where the definition between what is right, or legal, and what is wrong, or illegal. Right things are affirmative for the culture of the situation and legal things are universal fail-safes. What is legal may not necessarily be right for you or your situation, so these areas become grey in that there is no clear guidance. We need to make space for these grey areas and confront them with our positive attitude towards growth. Each of us has a line drawn that defines what is acceptable and what is not, the combination of these lines needs to manage to stay parallel with the majority without overcrossing the minority and cutting them out. In social dynamics, no lines can be drawn but methods and language are necessary areas of creative collaboration.

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​We are all unique, not one of us can be completely likened to another. Another person is another story, another background, and another vibrant patchwork of experience that shapes who they are. If we speak up for ourselves and our perspective, we’re usually not acting as a spokesperson for our demographic, but as our own voice. When a person has a view, it’s their view. It’s not the view of their skin colour, their sexual preference, or their age. When we get used to the idea that there are no inherent patterns we can stereotype then although the workload increases exponentially, the validity and reach of what we do will be a lot more precise and a lot less confrontational or abrasive.
 
It is often human nature to make guesses and assumptions based on what we know from seemingly similar situations. Sometimes this will happen to you and your experience and input can be side-lined in favour of a textbook version. We all know how hurtful this can be, when our senses are overwritten by others because they would rather believe in an intangible archetype, or their own personal experience based on a completely different story. If you’re watching the Matrix and you see the same cat you know they’ve changed something but if you’re watching Tom and Jerry, you know it’s something to do with the mouse. Seeing the same cat twice has many meanings, and the things in real life are just as diverse in their meanings. We need to have the courage to listen and validate everyone’s own experience of meaning and symbolism as these things directly affect the way we feel and our ability to work together.
 
When we work together towards a common goal of progress and peace, conflict resolution and easier living methods, those in our group are our allies. They’re not mirror images of ourselves. In national politics, allies don’t get involved in the internal affairs of their counterparts. The laws and systems that go on within each allied nation are their own business and only soft pressure is applied across borders. People are like this, too. We are allied with those around us who work towards a common goal. We’re not charged with governing them but with helping them create a joint vision and action plan that considers their unique style and ethos.
 
 It takes courage to work alongside unique individuals towards a common goal. At first, we know nothing about each other and nothing about what each other want to achieve. This is frightening to accept as not knowing is a source of real anxiety. Having the courage to start at the beginning and assess exactly what needs to be done from the start via a setting that comes from a different backstory requires time and patience. It might be easy to assume that we want the same things as other people and other cultures because we feel strongly about it. We imagine the other people sharing those feelings. Feelings are based on experience and history as much as right and wrong so it’s not possible to fully know what someone else will perceive when given new ideas. We get the job done better when we have the courage you start at the very beginning and accept not knowing.
 
When designing future process and output, whether it is artistic or not, it’s important to speak your true voice. In the same way we must humanise others and accept their experiences verbatim, the same can be said for yourself. It might be easier to lean back on common examples and well-known statements that point at your situation but when we find our own words and describe our experience and desires for ourselves, we can uncover unique and particular elements that so far have been in the blind-spot. Stating our own needs and moving towards them via the existing framework is sometimes a challenge. The world was designed by others with their own individual needs so aligning the various systems at play to achieve your own goals challenges the experience others may want to rely on.  
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​Toxic safety is where we settle for something that is unhelpful or contrary to our goals and objectives but provides stability and security. We can be working for a company that doesn’t listen to your needs or has a culture of aggressive motivation that can cause stress and depression if you’re not suited to it. The opposite may be true in which your organisation relies on self-guided and mature objectives and open concise communication where you would prefer a more hierarchical and assertive style to work with. The organisations and the cooperative groupings we work within are not always the best place for us, it requires a lot of courage to break from this and go out in search of the better option. Knowing our virtues and demonstrating them at each given opportunity will result in a compatibility with those who are likeminded. Standing up for what you believe in, and vocalising concerns, is frightening for most of us.
 
Courage is about bring brave and working through the sense of fear and anxiety. It require a stable and grounded mindset with enough time to address fleeting sensations that stand in the way. We need a slow and steady walk towards the objective with a guided and open-minded approach. Unifying the whole to produce a clear vision and direction everyone can agree on requires putting the information in place and giving people the opportunity to address it from their own perspective. Being able to play our part and then sit back while the community takes in our input and responds in their own time means letting go of the immediate desire to move forward. We need to remove the blinkers and see things from the bigger picture. This can be frightening as suddenly the scope of our purpose is extended by a large degree however the opportunities and available directions mean this mindset provides the best chance of growth. Creativity uses the ingredients available and makes something that is viable to all viewpoints, either as an address to an issue or a solution to one. We need both if we are going to solve our problems and discovering them on a holistic scale means taking a selfless and impersonal systemic approach as well as listening to ourselves and taking our own experience seriously. You need two eyes open, one to look outside and one to look within.

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