Blank Canvases

Canvas One

The year was 1968 and The Beatles were already solidified as one of the most iconic bands in the history of the music industry. They were riding high on the massive success of the The White Album, which remains their most certified album of all time at 19-times platinum, selling almost 10 million copies in the U.S. alone. Commercially and critically there was no disputing that the four boys from Liverpool had changed the world of entertainment forever, and most would have thought, looking from outside in, that their lives should have been rosy as they basked in financial rewards and popular sentiments by the truckload. The truth, however, told quite a different story.

Paul McCartney has documented his feelings during this period of time on more than one occasion, speaking of the combination of factors that were causing him to experience a very real despair, even in light of vast success he had known. Those factors included the tremendous pressure the band was under to produce another album that would rival the enormous success of their previous efforts, internal squabbling and personal conflicts between band members, McCartney’s own solitary existence as opposed to his bandmates who had all found spouses to share their lives with, and the addition of alcohol and drugs that were becoming a nightly part of his routine. It is safe to say, judging by his own written account, that McCartney was feeling pretty barren and empty, in fact he even documented his feelings by saying:

“So, I was exhausted! Some nights I’d go to bed and my head would just flop on the pillow; and when I’d wake up I’d have difficulty pulling it off, thinking, ‘Good job I woke up just then or I might have suffocated.’”

Canvas Two

A couple of weeks ago I had lunch with a client from my previous company, and who has become, in my mind, a very dear friend, and someone for whom I have a great deal of respect. This is a woman who is exceptionally bright, earning her Masters in Clinical Psychology, and been in leadership at a prominent University for 15 years, developing training and educational programs that were of the highest caliber.

In between bites of our sandwiches she began to explain how, through events that were out of her control, she had been set adrift from the career she had spent countless passionate hours building. She now found herself experiencing the frustration of feeling that every position in the business community she applied for she likely appeared over qualified to most companies, and she was now in the midst of experiencing a full on career transition. Her personal drive had little to do with salary, and more to do with finding a new challenge where her considerable skills and knowledge would be able to flourish, and her passions could be reignited. I listened stunned by the fact that a woman I knew to possess high levels of integrity, capability and education had found it difficult at all finding new positions because businesses were too shortsighted to see what an incredible asset she would be. Their concern, and assumption, over what they might have to pay her seemed to have placed her in an empty space, feeling a bit like she was traveling in a valley of life. Yet, true to her character, she was not bitter, nor was she discouraged, she spoke in terms of using the time to learn more about herself and what she really wanted, as well as sharpening her focus on everything that was truly important in her life.

Canvas Three

Robert Norman “Bob” Ross was able to build a $ 15-million-dollar business centered around his PBS show called “The Joy of Painting” that aired from 1983 to 1994, and was known for his soothing measured voice, notable catch phrases like “happy little trees” and thick curly hairstyle. Over time his personal branding was on successful lines of art supplies, instructional books and video, as well as painting classes. His soft spoken, gentle mannerism belied a man that at one time had enlisted in the United States Air Force at the age of 18, became a master sergeant and had to become, in his own words “tough” and “mean” being “the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy to makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work.” He vowed that if he ever left the military he would never scream at anyone again.

His life was certainly not without its share of difficulty, losing part of his left index finger working with his carpenter father at a young age, experiencing a divorce from his first wife, and losing his second wife to cancer, he himself lost his own battle with lymphoma at the age of 52. He started every show with an empty, blank canvas and proceeded to create over 30,000 works of art in his life time, ending every show with the statement, “So from all of us here, I’d like to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend.”

Three different people, with vastly different life trajectories, and completely unique personalities…and yet they have one thing very solidly in common…the empty canvas. You and I have experienced that phenomenon as well.

There are times in life that really represent the pinnacle of experiences, the culmination of the hard work climbing the mountain to stand at the top, plant the flag and enjoy the view of victory. You sit breathless for a moment and take in the splendor of the scenery, it’s fills your vision with landscapes and vistas that are almost indescribably beautiful and you can scarcely speak for fear of spoiling the moment with needless commentary. The world, in that moment, can seem to be a complete work of art, a canvas full of dazzling colors and skilled techniques…meant to be drunk in and enjoyed. The problem with mountain top times? You can, and should, enjoy these times, but also realize that while it’s fantastic to reach the summit, and appreciate the moment…you can’t set up camp and live there. Sometimes it’s having a smash hit album…only to have the pressure of doing it again, only better. Perhaps its enjoying a lengthy and successful career…only to have unexpected, outside forces derail it and send you careening off in a different direction. Maybe it’s producing 30,000 pieces of artwork and a successful art supply business…only to have to start over every show for 11 years staring at a stark white page and needing to create something beautiful all over again. The mountaintop experiences are very often transitory and the struggle to the summit, the ride down the other side and the time spent in the valley in between, is where we we live a good portion of our lives.

Those in between times can feel, at any given moment, like an empty, blank canvas…lonely and barren. Every one of us has spent time in the valley, the difficult times that beckon us to question our direction, or that seems to mock our resolve to get to the next mountain peak painted in the distance. It’s a part of the human condition that self-help, motivational speakers don’t always acknowledge…that place where platitudes about persistence, and pithy Facebook memes don’t really help sustain you in meaningful ways.

The blank canvas time periods in life will challenge you, demanding more than you think you can give at times, in fact the three examples above also teach us three very important lessons that I think are universal.

• Paul McCartney’s blank canvas moment shows us that these moments can, and will, still occur to us no matter what kind of monumental heights you have already reached in the past. Blank canvas times are no respecter of past accomplishments, and they can make the mountain tops you’ve scaled look like distant molehills in the rearview mirror…if you let them.
• My friend’s blank canvas moment shows us that life is unpredictable, and even the best laid plans can be twisted and turned into unknown directions. You can’t always be prepared for when it happens, but you also can’t give in to despair and curse the heavens when it does. Instead you have to determine in your heart to use the time there to learn and grow, making each step forward more about personal progress rather than a grueling slog to be resented.
• Bob Ross’ blank canvas teaches us perhaps the most important lesson of all. It is in the valley times, the moments of the struggling climb or the rapid descent, the sections of life that can feel like like blank canvases that we can ultimately create our best and most beautiful works of enduring value. Every single show that Bob Ross did started with that empty frame on an easel, and on it he gently built happy trees, clouds, mountains and wildlife. He wasn’t afraid of losing his way in the emptiness, or making mistakes, in fact one of his more famous coined phrases was, “We don’t make mistakes; we just have happy accidents.”

You see every blank canvas is really the opportunity to create a better masterpiece, a better life, or even a better you. Ross was once asked about his calm and contented demeanor, he said the following:

“I got a letter from somebody here a while back, and they said, ‘Bob, everything in your world seems to be happy.’ That’s for sure. That’s why I paint. It’s because I can create the kind of world that I want, and I can make this world as happy as I want it. Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news.”

Did you catch that?

You can make the times of your life as happy as you want them to be, it’s all about how you respond to the times in between the mountaintops, when the way ahead isn’t clear and all you have is a vision of how things could, or should be. That becomes your blank canvas moment that doesn’t have to represent emptiness, loneliness, frustration or despair…it can actually be seen as opportunities to make ourselves and our lives…better.

If you want supporting evidence of that fact, look again at the first two canvases.

Paul McCartney was wrestling between exhaustion and insomnia, feeling the impending break up of his band, and the crushing weight of studio expectations and it was there that he had a dream of his mother, who had died when he was only 14 years old. All these years later, McCartney spoke of what occurred in a dream, saying:

“My mother appeared, and there was her face, completely clear, particularly her eyes, and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly: ‘Let it be.’

It was lovely. I woke up with a great feeling. It was really like she had visited me at his very difficult point in my life and gave me this message: Be gentle, don’t fight things, just try to go with the flow and it will all work out.”

As you have probably surmised at this point, it was after that dream that McCartney penned what became one of the most enduring, and popular Beatles songs, “Let It Be”, which then went on to become the title and lead track of the follow up album that they sought to create after the tremendous success of The White album. The song itself, finally released in March of 1970, went double platinum and is ranked 8th on the list of Rolling Stone magazine’s list of Beatles’ 100 Greatest Songs, and was called one of “the Beatles most popular and finest ballads” by AllMusic.

Some of our greatest work occurs on blank canvases.

When I talked with my friend about the trying times that she was going through, her blank canvas, she spoke about the fact that she chose to use the time she had been given during this unexpected career transition to keep connected to her daughters, and how she found work as a cashier at a grocery store. Here she was, Master’s degree on her shelf, working a temporary job far from the life she knew, and it would have been easy to fall headfirst down the mountain and land unceremoniously into self-pity…but she was far too strong for that. In fact, she chose to find purpose in all that had happened, and out of it came one of the most beautiful lessons in inner strength and understanding that I have ever heard. In fact, later she wrote me an email that I asked her permission to share, because I want you to read these words and tell me if this sounds AT ALL like someone who was defeated by life’s empty canvas:

“In the moment when one of the most important things in our life is stripped away (and that will be something different for each of us) when we lose our status, that thing we think gives us credibility or worth or what we think makes us whole…when we come to the complete end and have no idea what will happen and how we will survive…when we are in a dense fog and no light is to be found, then what? What do we have when all we know has been taken away? Who are we? What will we do? How will we respond?

I came to realize some very important truths…that when life is turned upside down and the future cannot be seen. You are still you. We have immeasurable worth…far beyond our achievements, our salary, awards, degrees, or our material objects we idolize. Those are fleeting like the shifting sand. The paradox, if you will, is having it all stripped away so you can realize your true worth…The answers are never immediately clear and so when walking in the fog we must LET GO OF OUR OWN AGENDA and rely on faith.

When I took a temp job as a cashier I was so humiliated. I was reminded of my other life over and over, never sure of what the future would bring or if I would ever again be anything more. I met some wonderful people and I was reminded that we are all humans, sharing the same struggles and actually no one cares what I used to do. It doesn’t matter a damn to them, nor should it. Who are we really? Do we have courage, character, integrity, strength, caring, love for one another? Those are the things that matter and they can only be grown when we lose worldly things — those things we THINK bring us certainty, security and meaning.”

Does that sound like a woman defeated? Not on your life! When I read those words it looks all the world like a woman who found out more about herself, who she is and where she wants to go, and gained even more confidence in the strength that she has always possessed.

Some of our greatest moments of growth occur on blank canvases.

You see, we don’t start every day already on the mountain top, we usually start with a white canvas that we can choose to either look at as full of pain, or full of promise. It is up to us to work through those times in order to, like Bob Ross did every show, end up with a masterpiece of color, design and creativity. Ross could visualize what he wanted to create, then he set about the work of making the process of converting the starkness into something exquisite a positive, educational and life affirming one.

Today, you too have a choice as to how you will respond to life in between the mountain tops. Every morning starts as an empty frame, and you decide whether that fact frustrating or inspiring…whether the blank spaces will be filled with “happy trees” or angry clouds, breathtaking prairies or bitter thorns. Just remember the facts proven by the 3 blank canvases we looked at and make your decision, because you will find your own portrait filled with results of that choice. You were meant to be a masterwork, but since you woke up this morning, you’re still breathing and are moving around, we must conclude the work is as yet unfinished.

What it will become today, tomorrow and so on…is up to you. It’s your canvas…your decisions, what will you do with it? What breakthrough work will you create? Who will you become?