A year ago, around this time, I started painting after 15 years of a career as an entrepreneur, founder, and CEO. Although I’ve had the urge for creative expression pretty much every decade of my life, I gave it a go and had momentum, but something more relevant would pop up that made it perfect sense to pursue. This is a whole other story that I’ll write about in my future posts.
Today, I’m writing about how a year of art in my life has shaped my perception of life and career, and why it’s necessary to teach yourself to make different decisions. Whatever work we do, we can make it better by adding new dimensions. These dimensions push us to explore, to seek inspiration—it doesn’t matter how it appears, but it will, often from unexpected places. But for it to appear, you need to experience something first.
For me, the vehicle to explore, to experience and get to know myself better has become art, and here is what dimensions it opened for me over the past year.
There is this beautiful realization that you can’t plan it all, and you probably don’t need to. Simply surrender to the process, and suddenly you’ll realize that overthinking vanishes, at least in the process of creating. Every mistake, stray line, or smudge is an amazing opportunity to do something exceptional, which usually wouldn’t have happened without that “mistake or failure.”
Speaking of mistakes and failures – there is no such thing as a mistake or failure. It’s part of the path all along. Every step, every decision – whether it feels like a success or failure – is part of a bigger picture. The key is to keep exploring, to stay open, and to embrace whatever comes your way.
Taking a moment to soak in the beauty around you – there’s plenty of it – is one of the most wonderful things you can do. It brings inspiration. A breeze shaking a tiny flower, a bird perched on a tree, the sky – always so different. Noticing these little things is inspiring. It fills you up.
The more you explore and let innate curiosity lead the way, the more you embrace your authentic self. And when that happens, everything that isn’t true to you at the core disappears organically.
A year of art has taught me that growth isn’t linear. It’s messy, unexpected, and almost never what we plan – but it’s in that unpredictability that we discover who we really are.
Let this be your encouragement to explore, experience, and find a little inspiration.