FOLLOW A PATH OR PAINT YOUR LIFE?

 FOLLOW A PATH OR PAINT YOUR LIFE?

How many times have heard and even used the expression myself that I am following my own path. That is not all together a negative thing. After reading what a motivational speaker, Nataly Kogan, had to say on the subject, I have revisited that expression. I know that when I am finding myself in trouble trying to decide what my next step should be I can get totally stuck. Or I feel regrets about choosing the wrong path and making the wrong decisions, then it becomes such an inner struggle for me.

It is when I flip it around inside my head and visually see a blank canvas which is representing my life.

When I think of my life as a painting, it frees me from worrying about decisions of going down the wrong path. I choose. I make the choices. Just as an artist makes the strokes on the canvas with the paint using his paintbrush. Each step is like a stroke that teaches me something, which in turn helps me make the next decision based on what is most meaningful to me. I get the right perspective because I am looking at the "decision" of what is the best way to move forward. 

By painting the canvas of my life I feel powerful and motivated to help me enrich and grow with each stroke that I make. I know that the strokes can always be changed or altered based on what my own needs are.

To give a personal specific example, I was using the term that I chose to go on a journey, down a path to become healthier. Because I am such a visual learner, it helped me imagine that all of the choices that I was making to help me get there were being painted on a canvas by ME. How I would accomplish my lifetime healthy goal will always remain in a picture that I have painted. Actually it is my own art gallery. 

At first, I did not know which way to go. Sometimes after the first stroke, the picture falls into place. Other times I never know how it is going to turn out and I must admit that is frustrating for me. It is easy to forget  that according to research, 99% of decisions in our lives aren't final or permanent. We always are able to adjust and choose a different stroke; just like painting a canvas.

The way that I look at this way of thinking is that it allows me to just let it go...everything that "should be" needs to be kicked out. This gives me the power to create and evolve in the way that I want my life to go. Not all things I am in control of. None of us are. What I am in control of would be the choices that I make with what is put in front of me.