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Trying to be original by speaking about originality – By @ggflrs

By Gémina Gil Flores

 

 

Trying to be original by speaking about originality

I could have written something about my first week at SCA, but it would not have been original. I could have written about the discovery of a new city, but it would not have been original. I could have written about how does it feel to be far from my friends and family but… You know.

I am not looking after being the most original girl in the world, I just hope I can write something interesting (and I don’t think that 500 words on « how much I miss eating good cheese and croissant » will be interesting for someone).

So… let’s talk about originality.

Our god Google gave me 3 definitions of originality :
1 – the quality or state of being original (that is definitely not a satisfying definition) 2 – freshness of aspect, design, or style
3 – the power of independent thought or constructive imagination

So, being original would be the ability to think and create without following any existing pattern. According to me, it is all about taking risk. Because if you don’t follow any existing pattern, you have no certainty that what you are doing is gonna work. You move in the blur. This feeling of uncertainty is hard to handle because it pushes us out of our safety zone and it puts us face what scares us the most : to fail. So if you take risks, you could face failure, but if you don’t, you will never face the satisfaction of having managed to advance something, of having create something really new that are gonna change points of views or habits. Yes I know : easy to say, really hard to do.

The fact is that breaking the rules is cool, but it has to be done with intelligence. Most people hate change, they are locked in their habits and they deeply believe that what they believe is true. So do not rush them. Go step by step. They must have the feeling that they are evolving, but not that they are totally changing.

For example, decide to repaint all London buses in blue is taking a big risk and you could probably find a good reason to do that but… Don’t. No one wants London buses to be blue.

To be honest, I am not the kind of person who takes a lot of risks in her life. Before doing anything, I usually determine the percentage of chance of failure. If it is more than 60%, I don’t do it. But when comes the moments to create, to find ideas, I always try to stand out. It often means finding a flaw, a detail, something that looks strange or conversely totally banal and find a way to exploit it. Take the time to observe. Look where others are going and not follow the same path.

Be original. Be you 🙂 Gémina Gil Flores

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