An Artful Life

One day I was thinking about my own life and how could I benchmark excellence in what I do day to day.  Every day I, like everyone else, faces challenges and obstacles that impact the outcomes for the day.  I realized that there was no "magic" number or metric that I could use that would say; today was successful!

I decided there had to be a some kind of way of intuitively recognizing if the day had been excellent or not.  After some thought, over some weeks, I came up with the Artful Life.  Every night as I review the day I ask myself one question:

If today was a painting, would I sign it?


This one question puts the whole day into perspective for me.  I realized through this exercise that my life is a canvas.  What I do every day is part of the mural of my life.  If at the end of the day, I feel good enough about the day that I can sign it, I can go to sleep knowing I have done my best.  If not, then I recognize the areas where I did not meet my standards and resolve to do better next time.

This exercise then led to additional thoughts about how I live my life.  Is my life an artful expression.  When I am looking to buy something, I now look at it from an Artful Life perspective.  Will this object add to the quality of my life, or is it just stuff?  I look around and my life is filled with stuff that does nothing to add to an Artful Life for me.  As I think about it more, I realize that stuff contributes to mediocrity, to feeling overwhelmed with the maintenance and the storage of it all.

I also began to see that the handmade pottery from a local potter was something that made my life and world better.  I now use a fountain pen instead of a ballpoint because of the way it makes everything I write more special.  I am looking to renew my wardrobe with fewer, better made clothes that will last longer with classical good looks.

Last Christmas I bought a game system.  I thought this was a great purchase because I could watch Bluray discs and play the up to the minute games.  Other than play bluray discs, I do not have the time to play video games.  Moreover, I can't figure out how to play the games I do have!  In short, this purchase did little to add to an Artful Life.  I would have been better to buy a bluray disc player and be done with it!

In evaluating what we have around us, what we need and what we desire;  what will add to the quality of our life?  What do we really need to paint a fabulous picture that at the end of every day we are willing to sign it?