Look around you. Then check out somewhere else. When you come back to...here...you may see something you never saw before.
The first time a person plays with a modern online mapping service like Google Maps, he or she is very likely to look for their own home. The thrill of seeing your home in a surreal, top down view, captured by an omniscient camera, propels the imagination. This simultaneously thrills me and depresses me just a little because it adds potent evidence to the already well-established trait of universal self-centeredness.
Another way of looking at this—a less gloomy view—is that we all begin our days inside our own unique existences. Shortly after identifying our homes from space, most people quickly drag the targeting reticles somewhere else on the face of the planet in search of all sorts of other sights. This reminds me that as much as we love ourselves, most of us are inherently curious. We start by looking at home to reassure ourselves and then we range out to see how our own experiences compares to others.
How does this inform us as creatives? It reminded us to create things we know about, first and foremost. Begin with your metaphoric home: you know it best and you care about it intimately. That said, we’re reminded by our digital mapping example to zoom out from our own backyard view and look over the fence. The world, virtual and real, curves wide at the horizon. It’s big! A wide view from space suggests vast distances to explore. A seemingly endless set of points appear as you skim the surface of the globe, and zoomed-in views suggests a nearly infinite library of stories to mine for ideas of all types. For writers, for musicians, for visual artists, for scientists, for seekers of all sorts, new territory means new possibilities. Sometimes new territory exists way over the horizon. Other times new territory is simply having the inner perspicacity to notice something barely beyond the reach of your own hands.
There’s no place like home: true. But once you know where you come from, challenge yourself to range outward and learn what’s going on elsewhere. Those explorations will inevitable make you more aware of the unique attributes of your own origin (as if any of us needed a refresher about ourselves), but they will also make you a more powerful creator. Then, after you’ve ranged out and chased the setting sun, be sure to look closely at your home with fresh eyes. You’ll be amazed how far you can travel when you get back.