Look for your blank canvas

An artist begins with a blank canvas. Colors , words, images flow. I am writing this blog post like an artist. While writing this, I am moving at my pace with the assumption that I will produce something that will reflect my thoughts.

A blog post, a painting, a story. Obvious forums of creativity. How about everything else in the ‘real’ world? Can this thinking be extended there? Yes. All we have to do is identify the blank canvas in any piece of work. The blank canvas is our grounding. Knowing that we can fill that canvas up with our personal expression is liberating. We don’t have to be right, we just have to be ourselves.

Every piece of work has a blank canvas. When we don’t see the blank canvas, the work becomes stressful. My husband for instance has accounting related work. Our small business setup recently upgraded to company status which means he is flooded with paper work requirements. He has lost sight of the blank canvas because of all the legal requirements. The blank canvas in his scenario is the new system he can design to accommodate all this. The focus then is not all those requirements but a new system that would be an expression of his logic and creativity.

I am building an education center. My requirement is to set this up by September which is 6 months away. There is a lot to do. Staff to recruit , a curriculum to set up, market this center etc etc. All this on top of my full time work as an event coordinator. Overwhelming if I think of all the requirements. When I do that I lose sight of my blank canvas — an education center that will be a reflection of my definition of student directed, personalised education.

I am putting in conscious effort to keep my focus on the blank canvas. When I am centered there I am more productive. Work flows because I am not really working, I am just filling up my canvas.