Saturday 15 June 2013

Circles of Importance



It is human nature to draw into smaller circles of people; mostly these groupings are done from some form of commonality as it is easily leveraged to suggest an existing bond without any need of prior engagement. This can happen horizontally across a wide spectrum of subcultures in isolated areas in your life or as a vertical filter that narrows the same group of people repeatedly into a much more intimate group.

What these common aspects are is unimportant. Whether it is family, politics, gender, race, sport, etc. it is all just a manifestation of our attempt to satisfy our need for acceptance. If you take away one, it will be replaced by another. The connections you make however are extremely important. Be aware  of the social stigma around the labels associated with you. Not only do they influence each other but they also provide a baseline for others to form opinions about you.

We hunger for companionship. It’s a void that exist from birth. We view our relationships as a means to validate our existence and in many cases they play a key role both as a motivation to live and in the quality of life. The urge for companionship is as primal as hunger and forms part of our survival instinct.

As a side note: I think that the deeper our connections are with others the fewer people we need in our lives  to fill this need and the less complex it is to sustain these connections. This can also leave us more vulnerable and isolated, bringing us to the alternative of having many connections that are more superficial but that satisfy the same need.

The irony is that the deeper a relationship grows the less important these labels tend to become. We are an extremely adaptable species with amazing capabilities once when we commit to something. The biggest hurdle in networking is to nurture an almost invisible spark into something tangible and ultimately motivation to invest ourselves in an uncertain outcome. These circles contribute by providing us with ground zero, a platform to explore new connections.

Do not blindly go through life's motions without understanding the
underlying need that drives us to it

We need to know the rules before we can break them. We are either a chess player that understands the opportunities and the restrictions of the board or we are the pieces that are moved around by others ignorantly thinking that we are in full control of our lives.