Sometimes it takes just a few words to inspire you to think deeply about your direction in life. While taking a yoga class, the instructor shared a quote that truly made me reflect on where I am in this phase of life. She said to the class something like, “You are not only the artist, but also the masterpiece of your life.”

Upon returning home, I immediately shared the quote with Mark and we discussed how closely this quote aligns with our five pillars of Retirement Transformed. Interestingly, we also realized that at different phases of our lives, both the artist and masterpiece may look entirely different during your working years, vs. your retirement years. For instance, Mark and I are both type A personalities, go getters at work and always striving to be the best version of ourselves; reading books, going to conferences, learning, etc. My two pillars were around leadership and customer engagement. So, during my career, I was the artist and the masterpiece was the work. Fast forward to retirement, I am now both the artist with a new blank canvas… my life will be my masterpiece.

Now the canvas isn’t quite so blank, however the point is that what’s in front of you is a new opportunity to really create and paint or sculpt. And it really isn’t a lump of clay, because we have 60 years of programming that we come to this point in our lives with. This can become even a little bit harder as an artist to undo a couple things that maybe aren’t healthy or serving us well, and then build on all of those new things that will better us in this space.

I feel like the artist that I was for the 35 years I was in corporate America is very different than the artist that I am now.

Trial and failure will help to create a more beautiful masterpiece. During my time in corporate America I didn’t have the ability for trial and error. I had the space for for trial and success only. Of course, I did make a few mistakes here and there, but I had to shuffle through them pretty quickly. Now it’s trial and error and learn, and then maybe error and fail, and then try and then succeed and get centered! Your painting is just so much more robust. It will take an effort as you enter this space as an artist working on a masterpiece, and if you don’t work on it, you’re going to be stuck in the old you. For example, the old CEO of a company, the old senior executive of a Fortune 200 company may not even have the same color pallete of the new artist you will become. Many times you will have to reinvent, redesign and reprogram yourself to become a new artist with new tools.

It takes an effort. The effort can be an uphill battle, or it can be a challenge. In this phase of life, it can be an effort to be healthy, eat better or stay engaged with your goals. Part of my masterpiece that I am creating in my life is my dedication to mindfulness. That was the hardest thing for me to do five years ago when I started meditating… to be quiet. And now my mind is quiet. It took 90 days before I actually started to really enjoy it. But the effort, 90 days of working at this, trying and struggling, not liking it and feeling it’s not working… is now working.

With all that said, we want to know, how are you painting your life differently? How are you molding it into something transformed? Because you are the artist and the masterpiece, all at the same time.

This post was adapted from a Facebook live we posted in our FREE Facebook community. Click here to join our community and view the post.