Unlocking Your Inner Artist: Bridging the Gap Between Vision and Reality

Another thing I’ve learned, while I’m waxing philosophical, is that we humans are all creative and our canvas is our lives.

Some stories begin with love and riches and opportunity. Many do not. And it must be said that none of us start at the same place on the starting line due to systems created far before we take our first breath. It’s highly unfair, but I’ve also had to stomach that that’s just how it is. I’ve also come to realize that it doesn’t have to remain that way.

Creativity is a skill

Until we collectively come together and destroy the systems that enforce inequality, what we can do is create with our lives. There are no blank slates — what we have are a bunch of ingredients and some tools to play around with. No one’s pantry is stocked the same.

The problem is we lose something as we get older. We lose the mindset of creating. We lose the joy of throwing things together, of experimentation. Our fear of failure and looking foolish in front of others stymies growth; at least, that’s what happened to me. And it is a fact that creativity is a skill — you get better the more you iterate.

So perhaps you are not a painter or writer, but your life can be your canvas. And you’ll stumble a lot. A whole lot. You’ll go backward; but, eventually, you will press forward as you learn. You just need to keep some sense of self-awareness.

Lifestyle Design

It seems contradictory but you have to search for what you truly want. Some people are lucky and stumble upon it while still in pull-ups and barely able to form a complete sentence. Others don’t get to it until their twilight years.

But it’s about peeling back the layers of you and the layers of the environment that raised you to figure out what you want your life to look like. Holding a vision in your mind and working to bridge that gap…is that not art? We all deserve for our lives to look like something from our dreams, which is why I’m writing this piece.

What dreams do you have? Where does your mind wander as you lay awake at night? From there, it is a matter of cultivating and iterating until a foundation forms — then you build. It’s dead simple. It may not be easy, but it is simple.

Getting out of your own way

I’ll always try to be real with y’all, I get in my own way a lot. I’ll talk myself out of all kinds of things that could have put me in a more fulfilled place. I’ll tell myself about all the reasons why I can’t do something. I’ll make up words to put in other people’s mouths and use that as justification to remain still. I’ll blame parts of my childhood for the things I think I cannot change.

Licking wounds is comforting and addicting. The pleasure-pain sparks adrenaline and dopamine. And all of it may even be true to a certain extent. The systems we’re working with may throw up obstacles every step of the journey.

Eventually, however, you’ve gotta grit your teeth. And you’ve gotta have some hope. My hope used to look like the cracked earth in the desert — Death Valley-core with buzzards for ambiance (are there even buzzards in Death Valley god I’m going to have to google).

I was roughing it and getting cooked, too. Finally, I reached rock bottom and reached the point where I became sick of myself. I had to confront the fact that my current design was garbage and only I could fix it. No one was going to swoop in and wipe my problems away. No one was floating down from up on high and blessing me.

Perhaps somewhere in here, you’ve gotten the inspiration to make some things shake in your own life. All humans can create — start with one fraction of one dream and polish it until it shines.

If this inspired you at all, please leave a clap and/or leave a comment! I’m bursting to improve, y’all.