This message is for everyone out there who has lived a life of being told what to do, who to be, and how you should live your life. It is for those people who have had to deal with those that felt the need to live your life because they had trouble living their own. Having the ability to control who you should become somehow decreased the responsibility they had for their own lives. You became their clay to mold rather than them allowing you to live a life that was true to who you were meant to be.

In a recent conversation with my brother, he reminded me that we were lucky because our parents never put limitations or expectations on us for who we should be or what we should do. We had the freedom to explore our talents and the support to ensure that we were successful in whatever endeavor we might pursue. If something held our attention span for a minute or a year, we were never questioned for our interest and never guided to what was right for them, rather than what was right for us. It allowed us to use our imagination and creativity wherever it felt right. As a result, there is pretty much nothing that my brother and I can not do.

When we allow others to take our life paintbrush and use it to create a canvas that suits them, rather than what fits our life path, we are often robbed of the true purpose for what our life was meant to be. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens without us even knowing it. Those who are guided by controlling individuals get so caught up in what they are supposed to do, rather than what they want to do, that they never seem to break out of the box that they have been placed in. The fear of individualism becomes so great that the status quo becomes the safe place to be.

If you find yourself in this situation, perhaps it is time to take your paintbrush back and become the artist of your own life. No matter your age, there is always time to course correct and begin to live a life that is truly yours, rather than one that someone has painted for you. The beauty of creativity is that it lies within all of us. When we use that creativity to paint the life that we were supposed to live, it is then that we truly begin to live.

#morningswithron