Pulling At Common Threads
When you’re at loose ends and your project is hanging by a string, things may seem to be unraveling all around you but all you have to do is find common threads to see you through.
Common Threads are a theme or concept that you notice in one project or thing, but then begin to see its presence in other areas of your life.
It’s kind of like when you buy a new Jeep Wrangler in Tonka-truck yellow (what… just me?) and you start to see yellow Jeep wranglers everywhere — that’s part of it. The real common thread is when you start to notice that particular shade of yellow everywhere around you.
- You see a Yield Sign and it’s that color.
- You see a motorcycle that matches the specific yellow color.
- You see a construction site with earth moving-equipment in the same shade (no big surprise here as the official color is actually called “Dozer”).
It works the same way with ideas and story themes (ever notice how the movie Alien was very similar to Jaws?) or that when the book “Gone Girl” got popular there was a plethora of other “Girl” titles popping up all over the place? “The Girl On The Train”, “The Woman In The Window”, “The Girl Who Lived”, even one titled “Girl On The Ghost Train”.
Locating common threads and following where they lead can help you connect unifying ideas, find allies and resources, and even predict popular trends.
The next time you’re feeling a little tangled up in your thoughts, find a thread and start tugging at it — you never know where it might lead.
