Of inspiration and influence

inspiration

noun

“the process that takes place when somebody is stimulated by something that causes them to have exciting new ideas or to do something, especially creative.”

I often find myself wondering what makes someone tick. What makes someone get out of bed to work days as they do? What makes them come back to the grind the next day? More often than not, in my quest to find answers through biographies of the proverbial Greats — I find authors tagging them as ‘inspired’.

For a layman like myself, inspiration feels like a privilege. Before I get metaphorically torn from limb to limb for being in a creative field and calling ‘inspiration’ a scarce resource — allow me a minute to table my thoughts.

As time progressed, the evolution of human beings historically tied in with how communication as a concept evolved basis societal needs. Once upon a time, stories were told by Old Guard of which we took note; then someone wrote them down. Someone studied them further. More people, more minds, more opinions, more perspectives, more thoughts — all flowing almost in a controlled yet chaotic pattern, ‘inspiring’ people to buy into those words, to make them their own, and propel them onward. Inspiration is nothing but ideas that influence the minutest actions through intellectual stimulation.

But just as in economics, the removal of lack disrupts the flow of wealth and equilibrium stalls the so-called economy; the ease of access to ideas equates faster replication of them and thus causes a lack of crude originality. Putting it simply, our actions are so ‘influenced’ by the ideas of those close to us that they feel coerced rather than something intrinsically stimulating to ourselves.

Thus, the abundant availability of ideas removes us from the high of a self-started thought, making that intellectual stimulation through an idea now scarce. Hence, in my words, inspiration feels like a privilege.

To showcase to you how we are influenced subconsciously and removed from originality in the minutest ways — I have cheekily mimicked the title of this piece to reflect the format in which Francis Bacon, a Renaissance essayist, titled his writing. In my psyche, that manner of nomenclature checks the criteria needed to communicate any submission in writing, which has thus influenced me to follow the same but kept me perhaps from finding a more inspiring version of this title.

But why worry at all about whether we are inspired or influenced? Belonging to a discipline of creating and calibrating influence, why at all wonder about the spectrum that inspiration and influence present before us?

The answer lies in the idea of the stickiness of thought, the superlative of which becomes dogmatism.

Absolute free thought or even freedom of speech and expression will only always be Utopian. What we celebrate at multiple junctures in time is an increase in the degree of freedom for each. But thinking about it would unravel that underlying most of these thoughts, words, or expressions, “True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.”

In today’s fast-paced world, we see the emergence of new phenomena more frequently than ever. Taking a step back, they appear not to be in singularity but as a cause-and-effect situation. Taking a few steps further back always shows us that they have not been unique but a rendition of something that has happened before, but now, because of differentiators like technology and an evolved socio-economic conscience has had a different magnitude of impact, thus paving the pact for a newer perspective as a result.

It is not to discredit efforts today or tally them to standards set in the past or future; it is just amusing to note the continuity that society and the collective human history present. What connects them all is storytelling and a long lineage of effective communicators.

Storytelling brings with it the power to create, curate and control discourses. Thus, putting an immense responsibility on the tellers of these tales to know what power they wield and their allegiance to creating a better society through positive influence becomes rhetorical. Thus, communicators must knit pick and try and figure out where they might be most influenced; it helps to impartially weigh all sides through literature and social proof available to gauge what sway their crafted discourse can create.

Influence is here to stay as one of the most prominent tools shaping society, but those who are in it to drive said influence need to be inspired individuals themselves to give society that new vision and reinvigorated originality from time to time, bringing about the stir for everyone to get together and make sure we keep moving toward.