Paint Your Masterpiece

"If you hear a voice within you saying, 'You are not a painter,' then by all means paint… and that voice will be silenced." Vincent van Gogh

What is the blank canvas of life sitting in front of you that you deeply wish to paint but the voice inside you tell that you can’t? What is the voice inside you that is telling you that are not (fill in the blank)? Why do you listen to it? I have learned that I may hear the voice, but I don’t have to listen to it. It is easy to allow those voices to dominate and dictate what you will do in life. If we listen too carefully to those voices soon others may begin to believe those voices because your actions mimic the inner voice.

Recently I have been learning to chant; I feel vulnerable standing in front of my peers and chanting prayers. When I first began 12 weeks ago the voice in my head was telling me that I couldn’t do it. After forcing myself to stand in front of others I became less and less afraid. Soon those voices that told me I could not chant will be silenced.

I am grateful for the times in my life that I have been forced to face my fears and to move forward to silence the voices in my head. I think back when I first started my advertising career. I was in a new city and scared every single day that I would not be able to generate enough income to meet my monthly obligations. Had I listened to the voices I would have quit and returned to something more comfortable. After about six months those voices went away and I ended-up as one of the most successful persons in my company’s history. The voices that once whispered intense fear now shout extreme confidence.

What are the voices telling you today? What is your heart wanting to create but the voices are telling you that you can’t? Is it a new relationship? A new career? Someone has to win the Pulitzer Prize—it may as well be you.

Think of what the world would be like today if Martin Luther King Jr. or Susan B. Anthony would have listened to the voices in their heads that told them that they could not succeed.

I once heard someone say, imagine what your life would look like if you always trusted God. It is not easy to ignore the voice that whispers "you can't", but I cannot go through life allowing that voice to pave my path. As a matter of fact, when I recognize the sound of that voice I get angry. I know it wants to steal from me what God has put in my heart. It wants to destroy what the God in me is attempting to create.

George Bernard Shaw said, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." The only way I am going to be able to create myself is to ignore the voices that tell me I can’t paint, pick up the brush, dip it in the paint, and touch the canvas. Who knows, I may just be a masterpiece.