Becoming Socially Smart with your idea

In a recent interaction with my son, he told me how he would like to visit one of his very good friends(BFF😎). He mentioned he needs the friend to act in a "movie" he already wrote the script for and assigned the characters. Knowing how passionate he is about the "movie", and how he tells me about it at every given opportunity with everyone in the family being a character, I gave him a few lessons in social smartness.

Being passionate about something is a great feeling. We also instinctively expect everyone around us to be equally passionate and sometimes get disappointed when they are not.

In such cases, ideas that should bring people together can start driving friends apart. The passionate one could start questioning:

• Why was he not interested in my idea?"
• Why was he so jealous?

The friend could be bored with the fact that every time his friend comes, the only thing he talks about is this passionate idea. That seems to be the only thing he cares about. Next, he starts avoiding him and would rather talk with someone else.

So, I told him, if every time I talk to you, it is to do another Maths exercise or computing with no play time in between, the next time I come through the door, you may pretend to be sleeping.

As I told him, here are a few points to being socially smart with your idea:

• Your friend may not be as passionate about your movie idea as you are, and that's okay.
• The fact that your friend is not as passionate about your movie idea does not mean you should not be, neither does it necessarily mean it's a bad idea(Although it could be, sometimes 😊).
• You should not lose a great friend over a passionate idea. If he is not interested in your movie idea now, he can still be a great friend while you find other characters for your movie.
• You do not have to talk about your passionate movie idea every time you meet to talk or play. Let them enjoy their time with you.

Great friends do not always become great partners and family members do not have to invest in your idea at the start. That does not make them enemies. Being socially smart will make you friends and attract great partners along your journey.