Think of yourself as an artist

• Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. Don Miguel Ruiz 
• If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself? Don Miguel Ruiz
• Art,  Creative expression,  Creativity,  Life is God’s work of art,  Mastery,  Excellence

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Think of your life as a work of art   

• All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life. C. Richards  
• I am an artist at living – my work of art is my life. D. T. Suzuki
• In a sense, as we are creative beings, our lives become our work of art. Julia Cameron
• My life is a creative act – like a painting, or a concerto. Ram Dass 
• People with a high level of personal mastery approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning. Peter Senge 
• When I say be creative, I don’t mean you should all go and become great painters and great poets. I simply mean let your life be a painting, let your life be a poem. Osho
• A really spiritual person will live life as an art, will create a deep harmony between the body and the consciousness. And this is the greatest art there is. His life will be a joy to see. Osho
• To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach. Havelock Ellis 
• Let yourself become living poetry. Rumi
• Life is not an exact science, it is an art. Samuel Butler  
• I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art. Carrie Fisher 
• Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all. Ray Bradbury
• Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum. Ansel Adams   
• To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Henry David Thoreau
• My art and profession is to live. Michel de Montaigne

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Think of living as an art that you learn as you go   

• Life is an art we are required to practice without preparation, a score that we play at sight even before we have mastered our instruments. Lewis Mumford 
• Life is playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as you go along. Lord Bulwer- Lytton 
• Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John Gardner 
• Living involves tearing up one rough draft after another.
• Learning

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You paint the canvas of your life …   

• Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. Danny Kaye 
• Different shades of life make the painting more beautiful. Mike Dolan 
• You have your colors, you have your brushes, paint paradise and walk right in. Nikos Kazantzakis
• The world is but a canvas to the imagination. Henry David Thoreau 
• The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus, always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas. We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create. Frank Herbert   
• An empty canvas is a living wonder… far lovelier than certain pictures. Wassily Kandinsky

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… using your imagination, thoughts, choices, words, actions and dreams as brushstrokes   

• With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice. Oprah Winfrey 
• The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives. Louise Hay
• God, the supreme artist, uses our life for the creation of art. We are the instruments through which the force of life expresses itself. We express our art in everything we say, everything we feel, and everything we do. The creation is ongoing, it is endless, it is happening in every moment. Don Miguel Ruiz  
• Life is an endlessly creative experience, and we are shaping ourselves at every moment by every decision we make. Kent Nerburn
• Life is a tapestry woven by the decisions we make. Sherrilyn Kenyon 
• Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint – this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art. And so it is with life.  Each step, each deed, each brief choice builds gradually, day by day, to shape both character and destiny.  Richelle E. Goodrich 
• Dreams are like the paints of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing, is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality.
• Imagination,  Thinking,  Choice,  Action,  Dreams,  Words

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Become a master in the art of living through constant learning and practice   

• Just as wood is the medium of the carpenter and bronze is the medium of the sculptor, your life is the medium on which you practice the art of living. William B. Irvine
• Living is an art. The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory; the other, the mastery of the practice. Erich Fromm
• Can anything be learned about the practice of an art, except by practicing it? Erich Fromm
• They each took part in the greatest work of art anyone can construct: the architecture of their own talent. Daniel Coyle
• If one wants to become a master of any art, one’s whole life must be devoted to it, or at least related to it. Erich Fromm
• First of all, the practice of an art requires discipline. I shall never be good at anything if I do not do it in a disciplined way; anything I do only if “I am in the mood” may be a nice or amusing hobby, but I shall never become a master in that art. Erich Fromm
• I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit. Martha Graham
• Learning,  Practice

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Let your life be a masterpiece…   

• Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art. Don Miguel Ruiz 
• What would it be like if you lived your life as a work of art in progress? If each breath and each action were part of an unfolding masterpiece? If you saw the shadows and light areas as part of the composition? Accepted it all? Found joy in the beauty of it? Stephen Covey
• Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. Samuel Butler 
• I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk. Tony Robbins 
• There were far worse strategies in life than to try to make each aspect of one’s existence a minor work of art. Pat Conroy 
• Let each day be your masterpiece.
• All men are sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create their idea of a masterpiece. Eddie Murphy 
• The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose. Michel de Montaigne
• Mastery

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… and let your greatest work of art be yourself   

• Your single greatest work of art is yourself. As with any art form, the more you understand and develop your talents, the more empowered and masterful you become as an artist. This is particularly important when engaging in the art of consciously shaping your own life. Scott Edmund Miller 
• To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson
• You are always and forever in the moment of pure creation. The point of life therefore is to create—who and what you are, and then to experience that. Neale Donald Walsch
• We are the cutting edge of becoming. Terence McKenna
• Remember, you are constantly in the act of creating yourself. You are in every moment deciding who and what you are. You decide this largely through the choices you make regarding who and what you feel passionate about. Neale Donald Walsch 
• You want to become aware of your thoughts and choose your thoughts carefully and you want to have fun with this, because you are the masterpiece of your own life. You are the Michelangelo of your own life. The David you are sculpting is you. Joe Vitale 
• We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them. Henry David Thoreau

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Step back from the canvas of your life regularly to get perspective

• Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art — an individual masterpiece. Denis Waitley
• Have you ever watched an artist paint a picture? He or she works close to the canvas – painting small sections at a time in the process of bringing the whole creation into being. But every once in a while, the artist must step back from their work and look at the whole picture. Only by stepping away from what you are working on and involved with can you gain the proper perspective or point of view that is crucial to the end result. Michael Angier 
• Perspective

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Know you are free to create whatever you wish   

• You cannot create a thing—not a thought, an object, an event—no experience of any kind—which is outside of God’s plan. For God’s plan is for you to create anything—everything—whatever you want. Neale Donald Walsch 
• I do not make a judgment about the creations that you conjure, I simply empower you to conjure more—and more and more and more. If you don’t like what you’ve just created, choose again. My job, as God, is to always give you that opportunity. Neale Donald Walsch

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Don’t wait for clarity – get creating   

• The universe is waiting on you, not the other way around, and it’s going to keep waiting until you finally make up your mind. Waiting for clarity is like being a sculptor staring at a piece of marble, waiting for the statue within to cast off the unneeded pieces. Do not wait for clarity to spontaneously materialize — grab a chisel and get busy! Steve Pavlina 
• Clarity

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Find yourself and express yourself in your own unique way   

• You are an artist of the spirit. Find yourself and express yourself in your own particular way. Express your love openly. Life is nothing but a dream, and if you create your life with love, your dream becomes a masterpiece of art.  Miguel Ruiz
• Creative expression,  Uniqueness

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Know that every day is an opportunity to be creative   

• Every day is an opportunity to be creative – the canvas is your mind, the brushes and colours are your thoughts and feelings, the panorama is your story, the complete picture is a work of art called, ‘my life’. Be careful what you put on the canvas of your mind today – it matters. Innerspace 

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It is in the process of creation, not the final piece, that our greatest joy is to be found   

• The sculptor of a work of art does not derive his greatest satisfaction from the finished piece. It is the process of creation (the sculpting of the piece) that gives him pleasure. That is the way we would like you to view your physical experience of creating: continual, joyful becoming. Esther and Jerry Hicks
• Joy

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To be an artist, act from the soul   

• Life is sacred. Life is art.  Life is sacred art.  The art of sacred living means being a holy actor, acting from the soul rather than the ego.  The soul is out of space and time and hence always available, an ever-present potential of our being.  It is up to each of us to celebrate and actualize our being, and to turn each meal, conversation, outfit, letter, and so on, into art.  Every mundane activity is an opportunity for full, authentic self- exploration.  The soul is our artistic self, our capacity for transforming every dimension of our lives into art and theatre.  Gabrielle Roth
• The soul

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Colour your life with a full box of crayons   

• Your attitude is like a box of crayons that colour your world. Constantly colour your picture grey, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colours to the picture by including humour, and your picture begins to lighten up. Allen Klein
• Life is about using the whole box of crayons. Ru Paul 
• Stop counting crayons, just draw pictures. Mark Scharenbroich 
• Colouring outside the lines is a fine art. Kim Nance 
• May your life be full of colour and your crayons never melt.

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Think of yourself as a creative expression   

• Each of us possesses a creative self. Claiming that is a transformational art. When you begin to act on your creativity, what you find inside may be more valuable than what you produce for the external world. The ultimate creative act is to express what is most authentic and individual about you. Eileen M. Clegg
• Creative expression