Becoming The Artist of Your Own Life — Beneath The Surface
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There are so many people who are just drifting through life, always reacting. They're always solving problems, always checking boxes, but they're never really choosing what they want to bring into existence. The funny thing is you can solve every problem in your life and still not create a life that brings you meaning, joy, or purpose.

So on this episode, we're going to go beneath the surface to explore what it means to become the artist of your own life. And not an artist in some abstract way, but one that's grounded in real daily choices you make. Like how you respond to challenges, how you carry yourself, how you decide what matters. Because whether you realize it or not, moment by moment, your life is becoming your work of art. So how about we create something we love? Let's begin.

Welcome to Beneath the Surface. I'm Sean Delaney. This series is a space where I bring you the ideas I'm sitting with most, the ones I can't let go of, the ones I return to again and again in my own life, and the ones that show up constantly in the conversations behind closed doors with high performers, creatives, leaders, and people who are on the path like you, not just to do more, but to feel more alive while doing it. These episodes aren't about giving you another strategy or chasing another version of success.

They're about going a level deeper, getting quiet enough to hear what's underneath the noise and remembering what actually matters. So if you're looking for a place to slow down, think deeply, and reconnect to the part of you that most of the world forgets to speak to, you're in the right place. Let's begin. Let's go beneath the surface. A number of years ago, I was reading Dr. George Sheehan's book, Running in Being, and I came across this quote from the philosopher Suzuki. He said, "'I am an artist at living, and my work of art is my life.'"

I am an artist at living and my work of art is my life. Now, I actually could never find out where Suzuki said or wrote this, but we'll stick with it because it's going to frame this entire episode. So I want you to pause for a second and even just think about that quote. Are you approaching every day, every moment with that idea that you are actually an artist and your work of art is your life?

Because so often we think about art as something we do, art as this product. But art isn't just a product. It can be a way of being. And every one of us has the ability to change our orientation to how we approach life and become more of this artist. Because your life, as it's lived moment to moment, is becoming your work of art, whether you realize it or not. Your life isn't just happening to you. It's a reflection of you. It's that dance between circumstance and choice.

How you move through your day, how you speak to your children, how you carry yourself when no one's watching you, how you respond to uncertainty and doubt and fear. All of these, all of these are brushstrokes on your work of art, which is your life. So do you care on grabbing the brush to be more intentional and start creating your masterpiece? We've got one life here. Let's make something special that we're proud of, that if we saw it up on a wall, we'd go, yup, that right there. That's what I care about.

If I could summarize being an artist of life into three questions, it would be these. What do I truly want? Where am I now? What steps will I take from here to there? So we're going to be exploring that on this episode. And we're going to create a foundation so you can start creating and being the artist in your own life. We're going to explore some of the key mindsets, some of the inner architecture of being an artist, and how to start really getting clear on what matters. But we need to begin with the first rule.

And the first rule is being an artist of life means that your life is its own individual creation. No one can tell you what is right for you, what brings you joy, what you truly love, what matters most, and what you truly want to bring into existence. In this comparative world we live in, we so often look to the external to figure out what we want and what we want to create. But an artist of life, they have an internal orientation. The first step to mastery is always inward. So you have to look into starts.

Remember what Nietzsche said. He said, you have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. The only way does not exist. Each one of us is a singularity that will have our own unique form of expression in the world. So you must remember that it always starts and ends with you. And you're going to have your own way, which will be different than others. And guess what? If it's different than others...

It's going to be hard to live in alignment with that, right? You have to get off autopilot and really take back the wheel of your life. The way I frame this is that you want to live your life so no one can mistake the meaning. So everyone knows what matters to you and what you're all about.

You don't want to live the finest hours in the waiting room of life. You have to realize that your life with all of its undulating rhythms and varied experiences is uniquely yours. It is a singular, unparalleled masterpiece. And deep within you, deep within every single one of us, we possess every tool, every ounce of resilience, and every bit of wisdom we need to navigate it. We just need to learn how to trust ourself. Being the architect and the artist of your life means understanding that every decision, every action, and thought is a brick building in your existence.

If it's not something you want, what are you going to do? Are you going to fix it? You have to know that if it's not going the way you want, who's going to fix it? Not some external force, not luck, you. Which means if you want to be the artist of your life, you need to take massive responsibility. But if you look back on your history and think, I've never taken responsibility for my life before, how can I do that? I want to bring in something I wrote in my first book, Masterpiece in Progress. This is in chapter 9.

And it's called, "You Haven't Met All of You Yet." "You Haven't Met All of You Yet." So I'm actually going to read the page. And it says this: "How fascinating is it that we can live with ourselves every day, be with ourselves every moment, and yet still not fully know who we are? There's a profound truth to embrace here: you haven't met all of you yet. Within you lie uncharted territories, untrodden paths, and hidden dimensions of self waiting to be explored.

You are a labyrinth of thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and potential that has no end. This is not something to fear or shy away from. It's something to embrace with curiosity and excitement. Imagine, just imagine, adopting a mindset where each new day offers a chance to meet a more profound, more courageous, and more authentic version of yourself. It's not about changing who you are, but uncovering who you truly are.

It's a continuous process of self-discovery and self-realization of peeling back layers to reveal the essence of your being. You'll realize that you're never stuck, never stagnant, and never confined to being one thing. You are fluid, evolving, and ever-growing.

So take a moment today to meet yourself anew. Ask yourself questions that provoke thought and inspire reflection. Engage in activities that challenge and stretch you. Be willing to stand before the mirror and look beyond the surface, deep into your own eyes, recognizing the vast unknown that lies within. Remember, you haven't met all of you yet.

This is what it means being an artist of life. Each day, each moment, you have the ability to start painting your masterpiece. It does not matter how you've shown up in the past or haven't shown up. What matters is where your feet are right now. And to do that, let's get a bit more into the inner architecture of being an artist. And to live as an artist, you need to cultivate more than just a mindset. I say you also have to cultivate a skill set and a soul set.

That inner architecture, this inner orientation, that invisible framework that makes truthful creation possible and sustainable over a lifetime requires more than just your logical mind. It requires something beyond the mind, into the heart, into the soul, because an artist in life, they never dabble. They are all freaking in.

And if you try to dabble, you will repeatedly find yourself frustrated and discontent because you will be living out of alignment or you won't be putting in the necessary effort you need to live in alignment with your highest truth. Artists aren't problem solvers, which is how most people go through life. I said this in the beginning. So many people are just reacting or responding to whatever circumstances life throws at you.

This is a vicious pattern that so many people fall into where you're really not shaping life. You're just surviving. You're just going through the motions. You're just existing. And you would actually be extremely productive because you're checking off so many boxes, right? You're continually solving problems and you can solve every single problem in your life and still not have created a life that is meaningful and enriching. Think about that. You can solve every single problem in your life

And you can check off all of those boxes and still not have created the life that is meaningful and enriching. But the artist doesn't just solve problems. They create. You see, problem solving is focused on making something go away, fixing what's wrong. But creating, creating is bringing something new into existence. It is giving birth to something that wasn't there before. And so I'll ask you, what do I actually bring into existence day to day? What do I actually bring into existence?

This is the difference between just solving problems in your life and creating. They are not the same thing. If you're only solving problems in your life, you miss the deeper invitation to create a more purposeful, meaningful, and authentic life. Think about that. If you are not creating, then you are missing that deeper invitation to live a more purposeful, meaningful, and authentic life.

The great photographer Alfred Stieglitz said, "If what one makes is not created with a sense of sacredness, a sense of wonder, if it is not a form of love-making, if it is not created with the same passion as the first kiss, it has no right to be called a work of art." That's what it really means to be all in and wholeheartedly approaching what you create for your life.

I know this is a mindset shift. When you are an artist of life, you stop waiting to feel ready. You stop outsourcing your future to your circumstances or the situations that get thrown on you. You become the kind of person who builds meaning, beauty, and truth from the inside out. It makes me think of one of my favorite people on the planet, Brunello Cuccinelli. He said, enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day.

enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day. When you are an artist at life, you create possibility where you go. That is a total mindset shift and orientation in life.

William James said, he said, the greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude. When you live like an artist, you alter your attitude and therefore you alter your life. You are no longer playing the victim or complaining about those circumstances that show up again and again. You stop fighting reality and you decide that I'm not going to be a tortured artist. I'm going to be a joyful one. I am going to create. I'm not just going to solve. It makes me think what the philosopher Santayana said. He said, knowledge of what is possible.

is the beginning of happiness. Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. When you live like an artist, you think about what is possible and you then go out and start creating them. And I want you to know that when you live like this and you find more joy, it doesn't mean joy is going to be easy.

But it means you're going to be more alive. It means you're attuned to the beauty of becoming not just fixated on outcomes. A joyful artist knows I don't control the world, but I do control how I meet it. And I can meet that world with curiosity, with enthusiasm, with energy, with resilience, with joy, with optimism. These are all ways of being. And these mindsets, like you keep creating even when it's hard, especially actually when it's hard, because life is hard.

This has to be an outlook on life. And like I said at the beginning, you have to be all in. You can't say, I'm going to do this occasionally. Nope. You relentlessly stick to this orientation towards life. That no matter what life throws at you, you can create something out of it to get you to a better place. And to do that, I want to dive into clarity of vision. Makes me think of the proverb 2918, where there is no vision, the people will perish.

Where there is no vision, the people will perish. You need a clear vision about what you're going after and who you're working to become. A vision about what you are trying to bring into existence because every artist needs to reach towards something, right? They've got their vision. They've got their North Star.

But here's a truth you have to remember alongside of this: visions rarely arrive fully formed. So often, the visions in my own life, and I'm sure yours, started as whispers, right? Little flickers, little longings. Makes me think of what Robert Frost, the poet, said. He said, "Poems begin with a lump in the throat." So many times, clarity of vision starts with that feeling. And it's true that some people may have a crystal clear vision at the get-go.

But so many others may not. What matters is exercising the muscle and giving yourself the time and space to bring the vision to the forefront of your mind and your heart. Like I said, it's not just about a mindset. It's about a soul set. You have to bring this to the forefront of your mind and your heart. And so the vision, these ideas, something that might be small and begin as a lump in your throat becomes your target. It's important to know that visions so often start as small little seeds and then they grow over time.

So it might be a little small flicker, this little seed, you start to expand. The truth is, we all have a sense of where we want to go and who we want to be. Let me say that again. We all have a deep sense of where we want to go and who we want to be. Even if you can only see the smallest flicker of your North Star, it is still enough to guide you there. Makes me think of E.L. Doctorow. He said, you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. You have to listen internally to what's guiding you. Even if you can only see a few feet in front of you, just take the next intentional step. Because if you don't, if you haven't learned how to look inwards to find that North Star guiding you, how are you going to find your way? You won't. You're going to be a rudderless ship. Artists know how to attune themselves to the deeper pulses happening in the current of their soul.

Remember, and I've said this line multiple times by Herman Hesse, he said, I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me. I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me. Can you hear that? Can you hear those faint, subtle whispers that your blood is saying? That quiet knowing that, you know what? No, no, this is not my path.

Or the knowing that, yep, this is, I'm going to keep going here, even if others think it's wrong or not for me. This is a faint whisper. And I know this is nuanced and small, but you have to learn how to tune into those faint whispers that are pulsing within you because they never lie.

Artists of life, they do not ignore those whispers. They follow them even when it doesn't make sense to anyone else, even when they're scared because the whisper doesn't lie. And when you follow it, when you learn how to follow it, your life starts to take the shape of your soul. And what you want to do to start really tuning into these whispers is you need to ask some clarifying questions for your life. You need to ask better questions to get to a better place.

And one of the questions I like is, what do I really long for in life? What do I really long for in life? Not what's on the surface, but below the surface. What do you truly long for? Helen Keller said, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision. You have a vision. You just have to look inward. Because the artist of life, they always reach that moment in their life when they say, you know what?

Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I really here? What is this life all about? Am I just going to go through the motions? Am I going to follow the herd? Am I going to follow someone else's path? Or am I going to find some real deep purpose, my own sense of purpose in life? That's what you need to think through. You need to think through what you are all about. Have you reached that moment where you start questioning, why am I really here and what am I going to be doing with my life? And I think there are a few other foundational questions to help you get a clearer vision.

For me, they're these. What matters most to me? What matters most to me? Next, who matters most to me? Who matters most to me?

And third, how do I plan on spending my limited time between my birth and my death? Think about those three. What matters most to me? Who matters most to me? And then how do I plan on spending my limited time between my birth and my death? Like I said in the beginning, this is really about who you are committed to being in this life. You got one life. Who are you committed to being?

And one of the most impactful exercises I've seen to help people really start getting clear about this vision. So they've got clarity of vision. So they know what they're working towards. The orchestra conductor, Benjamin Zander, him and his co-writer, Roz Zander, in their wonderful book, The Art of Possibility, they discuss how Benjamin was teaching. He taught for over 45 years at the Boston Conservatory, and he taught a class with graduate students.

And he noticed how just negatively affected so many of these kids were because of their grades, right? They felt that ultra competitive pressure. You know, they knew the pecking order and they were always just comparing themselves. And so he realized that when you're living like this, when you're living tense and tight, there's no room for beautiful music to be played.

So he really started to think deep about this, and he realized that what he was going to do is he was going to give all students an A at the beginning of the course in exchange for writing him a letter within the following two weeks. Now, the key is they post-dated this letter at the end of the course. He says in this letter, in this detailed letter, what they have to write about is the story of what will have transpired

In him or her, by the end of the course, that is in line with this extraordinary grade. Essentially, who they need to be to earn this A. And what he wants the students to do is he says you have to place yourself in the future, looking back and report on all the insights you've acquired, right? All the milestones they attained during this year and all the accomplishments as if they were already in the past.

And what Xander wants them to highlight and is especially interested in is the person they will have had to become by the end of the course. Just think about what that means. They'll have to think through the mindsets, the attitude, the actions of someone who did all of these things to become who they wanted to be. And this is my favorite line that Benjamin says. He says, I tell them I want them to fall passionately in love with the person they are describing in the letter.

I tell them I want them to fall passionately in love with the person they are describing in the letter. Think about that. We talk about clarity of vision is so important because you need a North Star. You need something pulling you. You are guided by it. Are you falling passionately in love with the person you're working to become and the life you're trying to create? And if not, give yourself an A.

Fast forward nine months from now and think about if you were living as this incredible version of yourself, what are the attitudes? What are the feelings? What are the mindsets, the ideas that you need to be living in alignment with to become someone you are falling passionately in love with? And what Benjamin does, and I really like this for any leaders out there, he says when those people walk in the room after they've written this letter, he's not teaching who they are.

He's teaching to the person they described in their mind. He says that A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into. Think about that. Not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into. The reason you create and the reason you want to create is you care about and what you love so deeply you want to see it come into existence.

That's what I was talking about a minute ago. You need to be pulled towards your vision. It needs to motivate. It needs to inspire you. It needs to breathe life into you. You need to be enthusiastic about who you're working to become. And the ancient Greeks have given us a beautiful word in enthusiasm, which means a God within. The word theos means God and in means in. Thus, enthusiasm literally means God within.

Artists are enthusiastic and love their creations before the creation exists. Makes me think of the great line by Robert Fritz, it's not what the vision is, it's what the vision does. It's not what the vision is, it's what the vision does. What he means by that is he does not care how clear your vision about who you want to become and the life you want to create, how articulate it is.

Does it move your soul? Does your heart quicken when you read it out loud and you think about, hmm, that could be me. That could be my life. That's how I could show up. That is the state of being I could embody. It makes me think of the book Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazastanskis. And my Greek friends are going to kill me for this pronunciation.

I am sorry, but he says, and this is one of my favorite lines. He says, you have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then you go in. That's what you do. You paint your paradise in your mind and then you go in, meaning you step into it through action every day. So think deeply. Are you inspired and move and enthusiastic about the vision you have and the person you're trying to become? And if not, listen to the heart.

Listen to your blood whispering. Who, deep, deep down, do you want to become? Which gets me into what you actually want in life. And you might be wondering, you say, what the hell is this guy talking about? I don't know what I actually want. Yes, you do. Let's not overcomplicate this. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried to love someone you didn't love?

Have you ever tried to love someone you didn't love? It doesn't work, right? No matter how much you want to love someone you don't love, you can't. The fact is you don't love that person. This is one of the most obvious things and people resist this so hard. We do not choose who or what we love.

Think about that. We do not choose who or what we love. You might not be aware of what deep, deep down you love or desire, but you can't manufacture it. This is what Marc Andreessen meant when he said we don't choose our passions. Our passions choose us. We can't force ourselves to love people or to be pulled by a certain vision. We can't force ourselves to want what we don't want.

And the converse is also true, right? We can't not love what we love and we can't not desire what we desire. We either have one, a deep love, a deep passion, a deep interest, or we don't. We can't fake this. And the key here is actually tuning in and listening to that. And guess what? When you finally come to the answer, maybe living into it is not so easy.

Passion actually comes from the Latin word, passio, which means to suffer or endure, meaning that your passions are something so deep in you that you are actually willing to suffer for them. You are willing to suffer for them. Think about what Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. He said, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Emerson was a pretty freaking smart dude.

He wrote, to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. And once again, being the artist of life, it's not the easier path. It's the harder path. It's the more challenging path. But I believe all of those challenges, they come at the ego level, not at the soul level. Richard Arora wrote, whether you love what you love or live in divided, ceaseless revolt against it, what you love is your fate. Listen to that line again.

Whether you love what you love or live in divided, ceaseless revolt against it, what you love is your fate. You will either fall passionately in love with who you're becoming and listen to the whispers of your heart and soul, or you will live in divided, ceaseless revolt against it and despise your life because you're fighting your nature. Think about that. What you love is your fate.

This is about tuning in and truly listening and uncovering what is most important to you and then having the courage, the boldness to organize your life around those things. You have to have a hierarchy here. What is most important? What is most meaningful? Who is most important in my life? And am I truly organizing my life around those things? And guess what? So often, wisdom is subtraction.

And one of the most radical acts we can make as an artist is just to simplify, to stop grasping for more and start subtracting everything that doesn't align with what we truly want. Let that line just settle in for a second. Start subtracting everything in your life that doesn't align with what you truly want instantaneously. I know there are things coming in your mind right now that you can say, you know what? These actually do not align with who and what I truly want to create in my life. So if you're going to make room for

for what actually brings your life alive and joy, then you need to clean the shit out of your closet that's dirtying up your house. Because knowledge is accumulation, but wisdom, wisdom is subtraction. This is what Lao Tzu said. He said, to attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. The artist of life strips away the inessential only so the true work remains, so only the most essential brushstrokes are being created.

So ask yourself, what no longer in this chapter of your life is serving you? You know, what is distracting you from actually living into this life and this person you want to become? Then make the courageous choice to release them. Robert Frost said, simplicity comes from clarity about what's important. Simplicity comes from clarity about what's important. This all comes down to choices. And guess what? Artists don't wait to be chosen. They choose themselves. There is a moment in every artist's life

whether it's actually literal or metaphorical, where they just stop waiting. They go, you know what? I'm not waiting for approval. I'm not waiting to be discovered. I'm not waiting for perfect conditions. I choose myself. It's like what Sinatra sung about. I did it my way. One of my favorite passages of all time come from Margaret Userin from Memoirs of Hadrian.

And it says, he had reached that moment in life different for each one of us. When a man abandons himself to his demon or to his genius, following a mysterious law which bids him either to destroy or outdo himself. Have you reached that moment? Are you going to destroy yourself by not listening? Or are you going to tap into your genius, to your truth, and start living your life in alignment and intentionally with it?

The artist of life doesn't wait for permission. So if you've been waiting your entire life for permission, start now. You have every ounce of resilience and wisdom and power to choose differently in this next moment to start working towards who you want to become and build your life around it. Iris Murdoch said, man is a creature who makes pictures of himself and then comes to resemble the picture. Man is a

creature who makes pictures of himself and then comes to resemble the picture. Create the picture in your mind and then take the next intentional step toward it. This is not about positive thinking. I want to be so freaking clear. This is not about positive thinking.

Positive thinking can overlook reality. I want you being so freaking fierce with the reality to not fight reality, but to know you have vast amounts of potential, ability, love, joy, passion, all of it waiting inside of you, just waiting for a creative pathway to a better place.

So even when life is hard, even when you are in the middle of great pain or loss or suffering, you have taken responsibility and you are not waiting for permission to say, you know what? This is really freaking hard. And I wish I wasn't here, but I am here. And I'm going to show up with more passion, more joy, more love, be more intentional and create a better way out of this. Maslow said, we fear our highest possibilities.

We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we glimpse in our most perfect moments under the most perfect conditions, under the conditions of greatest courage. We enjoy them and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. It is time. It is the moment in your life

where you intentionally start stepping into these highest possibilities and potentialities. Epictetus said this centuries ago. He said, first, say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do. First, say to yourself what you would be

And then do what you would have to do. That's what it means to be an artist of life. To get up each day and with a deep inner conviction know, I'm not always going to feel ready. But I will not wait to be picked. I will not wait to be saved. I am creating the life I came here to live. This is on me. This is my responsibility. And I am no longer waiting. And what you start to see...

is people who've been living this way for a while, they have this different level of confidence, one that radiates outwards. It creates ripples. It gives you that feeling that that person, they know who they are, they know what they're moving towards, and they trust themselves to walk the path even when that path is unclear. That is a possibility for you. And so if you want to start living more of this way, you got to start developing that muscle that allows you to create

And so to do that, you got to be really radically honest about where you are right now. I was saying that you got to be fierce with the reality. You can't sugarcoat it. Don't posture. Meet yourself honestly. That's where real creation starts. Where am I at? Then what do you want to create? Not what others expect to you. Not what you think people would love or look impressive.

What do you want? What lights you up? What won't leave you alone? This does not have to be a big thing either. So often, the creative muscle starts small. So just think about something like that. Maybe you wanted to draw. You know, this is true in my own life. About a month ago, me and my son, we started drawing all the time. I had been wanting to draw for a decade. I did it as a kid. I was terrible at it just so you know, I wasn't an artist or anything. And I said, you know what, I really want to start drawing. And so a month ago, what did I do?

I wanted to start drawing, so we started to draw. And what do we do? You got to identify the next steps. What are the action steps, right? I can't just dream it. I can't say I just want to draw. I got to design my life more intentionally around it. And then what do we do as we go on? We revise. If it's not working, we make some changes. If it is, we repeat it. So what we need to do and the practice to develop the muscle of creation is know where you're at. Be radically honest where you're at.

Then get clear on what you want to create, identify those next action steps, and design your day or your life around it. And then you're going to revise and repeat because creation isn't linear. There's a dance to it. You try, you learn, you adjust, then you go again. This is not a one-time process where it's all done. It's a rhythm. It's a practice. It's a way of moving through the world. And what ends up over time is slowly you start to become an artist.

You become someone who doesn't just hope for a meaningful life. You become someone who builds it because every single thing you do, you look at it through an artistic lens. It comes down to these three questions. What do I truly want? Where am I now? What steps will take me from here to there?

Think about that. What do I truly want? Where am I now? What steps will take me from here to there? That's what it's all about. You got to know what you want, the reality of where you are, and then the steps you can start taking to go in that direction. You don't need to know exactly where you're going. You just need to know what the next best intentional step looks like. It is about taking action. And the key with action is even when you go in the wrong direction, guess what you're still doing? You're creating momentum.

So if you are in motion, you can change more easily because you're already moving. You're not standing still. So my advice is just start taking action. Just start taking action. Wherever your headlights are shining, meaning where you can only see, you can't see the whole North Star yet, but you can see right in front of you. Start taking action there because the present has incalculably more value than the future.

This action now creates momentum and momentum. It becomes so much easier to become fluid and change and to evolve when you have momentum. And the more moments you do like this, the more times you create, guess what? The deeper fluency and mastery you develop in becoming an artist. All right. So now that we've discussed that, I think one of the really important elements to hit on

is structure. Part of your job in creating your life as art is to set up structures that are going to support who you're trying to become. We so often think about creativity that we don't want any structure, but structure actually can be very, very important. So to start setting up some structures in your life, meaning routines, environments, practices, ask yourself some of these questions. What supports the version of me I want to become?

What supports the version of me I'm trying to become? Is it going to the bar four nights a week? Or is it going and doing something physical every single day? What are the rituals, the rhythms that really keep you aligned and on track? Think deeply about who you are falling passionately in love with becoming and think about what structures are going to support that. Another question I really like when thinking about structures is what is the one thing I can start doing to get me closer to the life I want to create?

And what is one thing I can stop doing to help me get closer? And what you need to do is you're making a fundamental, unbreakable commitment with yourself that no matter how challenging it gets, you are going to stay committed to this orientation towards life of being an artist and not playing the passenger. When you stay committed to this, guess what you're going to run into? Pain, challenges, frustrations, failures, setbacks. Life is filled with that.

So you need to be able to give your full heart to something. But guess what? You don't need it to go a certain way. A great artist has to be adaptable to the changing circumstances. They must know most of life you just can't control. And you need to focus on all the elements that you can control, right? Your effort, your mindset, your outlook, your approach to life. But then realize, huh,

Sometimes you have to accept. Sometimes you have to surrender. So it's all in full intensity, whole heart on your outlook in life and what you can control, but then be aware that you got to be adaptable and so much isn't going to go your way. This is vital because when we hear ideas like becoming the artist of your own life,

I feel like so many people think that everything is then going to be going your way because you're in the driver's seat. You are in the driver's seat, yes. But you can't control all those other drivers on the road, right? You can't control if it's going to start torrentially pouring. You can't control all the bugs that show up on your windshield. But what you can do is keep joyously driving, keep turning to radio stations on Spotify that you love, keep working towards your destination by following those headlights, and then use the damn windshield wiper to clear your view from time to time.

So let's wrap this up. And I know I threw a lot at you. And like I said, a couple episodes ago, that's intentional. I want you drinking from a fire hose on these episodes. I want these episodes to be loaded so you can go back again and again to find inspiration, motivation, insights, and ideas that you read now might hit you a certain way, but then you can listen again in five or 10 years and you're going to realize there's a whole other added depth of wisdom to it.

So this is a call to become the artist of your own life. And so often when we think about art, what are we thinking about? Creating something with our hand. We're painting the painting. We're doing the sculpture. But real art, real, real art, and the most important art is how you live. It's how you love. It's how you get up each day and decide who you will be because your life as it's lived moment to moment is becoming your work of art whether you realize it or not. Let me say that again.

How you live moment to moment is becoming your work of art, whether you realize it or not. It's the way you speak to your children, the way you lead your team or yourself. It's how you respond when things fall apart. It's most importantly, the way you carry yourself and what you do when no one is watching. All of these are brushstrokes. Every single one of them are brushstrokes on your creation.

So the question for you is when you stop listening to this podcast, are you going to create with more intention and purpose and joy? Are you going to continue just to go through the motions of your own life being a passenger?

Your life is not something happening to you. It is a reflection of you. Like I said in the beginning, it is a dance between circumstance and choice, between the person you've been and the one you're still becoming. And if you take one thing from the conversation, let it be this. You are an artist. I don't care who you are. I don't care where you're at in your life. You are an artist. You have a brush. You have a canvas. And the first rule is there are no rules. There is no right way. There is no formula. Nietzsche said it. You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way,

It does not exist. So stop waiting. Stop waiting for someone to give you permission or to feel ready for the conditions to be perfect. Just choose yourself. Choose the life you want to create, the one you're falling passionately in love with, and take more intentional steps on bringing that to reality. Create a life that you love, that feels true to you, that makes you feel alive and awake and vibrant. That's what it means to be an artist of life.

And I'll leave you with one final quote for this episode as you go through your day. It's from Dr. Seuss. He wrote, Today I shall behave as if this is the day I will be remembered. I'll see you on the next one.

Send it to them.

Because sometimes all it takes is a single conversation to shift the direction we're heading in. Again, it's whatgotyouthere.com. You can reach out, learn more, or just say hi. I always love hearing from people walking this path. Thanks for listening, and until next time.