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Dig Out Your Paintbrushes

We are all connected and have many similarities. Paintbrushes may not be one of them, but you will soon get the point.

Let’s get literal for a second. For starters, we all eat, sleep, and breathe. Another lane most of us have in common is work, whether inside or outside the home. We work hard for the money, as Donna Summer sang back in the day.

Speaking of work, I think one of the world’s most thankless and challenging jobs is that of our domestic engineers. Superhumans are running the world’s households, and they might even raise or educate children simultaneously.

Regardless of your type of work, home or otherwise, your “profession” requires training, knowledge, routines, and habits at some point in time. After we step outside our comfort zone and learn the tools and education needed for the job, work then becomes the most repetitive portion of our life, leaving little space for creativity.

Over the years, when I have asked my clients to share their gifts and talents, the majority use a past-tense response. I used to play guitar. I used to write poetry. I used to sew. I used to be an amazing baker. USED TO. A shocking percentage will respond with, “I have no talents.” Of course, we all have talents and gifts, we just don’t recognize them as such, or we have put many to rest and forgotten about them.

Either response, “I used to, or I do not have” originates from the same root cause. They correlate with “choosing” to become too busy. Yes, choosing.

Just as we are encouraged to become storytellers and writers as preschoolers, we are also encouraged to develop talents and uncover our gifts. As children, we have a solid bandwagon loaded with mentors and supporters. We are encouraged to learn an instrument, take art classes, and play sports. Time and money are spent on developing this area of growth. Our drawings are hung on the refrigerator and walls. We are encouraged to sing and dance when the family gathers. The audience is packed if you are playing in the band, performing the lead in a community play or when your brownies win at the County Fair.

As the “responsibilities” of adulthood creep in, the time we once spent on our talents and gifts shrinks. Quickly society teaches us that creativity does not put food on the table and is a waste of time. As young adults, most of us are not taught to block out precious time for creativity. Unless you hold a position in tech development or engineering, we quickly learn that talents and gifts are something you do in your spare time, of which there is little.

As a disclaimer, I am not being all-inclusive here. I know this blog won’t resonate with you brilliant souls who fought the norm and have kept your artistry alive.

So, I ask, where do you find joy? Let’s start there. I don’t know how many times I have been told this month to find my joy or to do what me joyous. Two months ago, I would have told you joy meant checking things off my work To Do list, organizing my new office, unpacking boxes, and cleaning the house. Honestly, I find joy in doing these things. However, deep joys such as gardening, writing, drawing, having conversations, dancing, biking, kayaking, walking by the ocean, binge-watching TV, and more have not hit my priority list for quite some time.

Yes, I have been blessed to love my career. A picture hanging in my office proves it. “If you love your job, you will never work a day.” But when Hurricane Ian trampled upon us two months ago, I began to analyze that work is work. Isn’t it? Even though I find joy in it, it has become monotonous, snuffing out my creative fires.

Yes, my talents and gifts are present in my profession, but I have lost the “downtime” portion of my joy. My “busyness” story defines me. I have worked nearly every day for the last three years, which hasn’t seemed unreasonable up to this point, after all, “I love what I do; it’s not work.” As I coach my clients, family, and friends to rekindle and discover their old and new talents and gifts, I realize I have not done so myself.

We are moving out of our home after living here only two months before the storm. It will take up to six months to repair the damages to our house. While re-packing boxes, I found a large Tupperware bin full of coloring books, colored pencils, markers, paints, brushes, and writing journals. I realized my beachcomber bike had flat tires, and it hit me. I had not ridden it for six months. And at one point, my kayak paddles fell from a shelf and nearly decapitated me. These discoveries reminded me that I have lost a bit of my joy. These talents and gifts had been tucked away, waiting for me to find time to slide them into my busy schedule. I no longer looked at coloring or making funny TikToks as joy. I have looked at them as burdens and could not equate the time I would spend doing them to the outcome I would receive if I stayed on task in my business.

Surely there is hope. I am putting it out here. There will be a societal focus and acceptance of joy and creativity. As a collective, we have the power. Over the years, I have watched the evolution of certain areas of wellness improve, such as self-care. Surely the evolution of finding joy and creativity might be next. A few decades ago, we began improving stress at work by addressing self-care to decrease stress. When I was operating corporate wellness programs, we enforced walk breaks and brought in a chair massage therapist weekly. Many self-care recommendations over the years have improved – we are not done yet, but they have improved. No one talked about self-care in the ’80s. Right?! Look at us 40 years later. Slowly but surely.

It is time to paint the picture of joy. Let’s begin conversations about how to define and achieve joy.

I am not naïve. Surely businesses won’t replace board meetings with quilt contests, bake-offs, and holiday talent shows, but I am encouraged that conversation will escalate, and joy will eventually become second nature.

Ask yourself, how do you define joy, and what are you doing when you feel joyous or creative? Then identify a few baby steps to embed joy in your personal and professional life. It might involve dipping your toes outside your comfort zone.

How about trombone lessons or reading to nursing home residents?

You may not have a set of paintbrushes to dig out, but surely you can start singing in the shower again.

Peggy Willms
Peggy Willmshttps://peggywillms.com/
Peggy Willms has been a trendsetter for more than 30 years. With her unique approach, tools, and strategies, she shatters the “Norm” in the health, wellness, fitness, corporate and medical fields. She is an author, certified personal trainer, sports performance nutritionist, personal and executive health, wellness, and life coach. Peggy is also a radio, docuseries, and experiential wellness retreat host, consultant, educator, and speaker. Peggy has managed multi-million-dollar medical clinics. Her unique business and work-site wellness programs have earned her multiple awards. She is a successful entrepreneur and owner of All Things Wellness, LLC. Her internationally syndicated radio show: The Coach Peggy Show focuses on All Things Wellness: heart, spirit, mind, and body. Peggy is the host and executive producer of a transformation docuseries, Coach Peggy Real-Time, which takes viewers on a wellness journey in real-time over 10-weeks. Real People with Real Problems finding Real Solutions. Peggy also conducts wellness retreats in SW Florida. A native of N.H., Peggy worked for the U.S. Army in Heidelberg, Germany. She raised her two sons in Colorado and is now a grandma. She now resides in Florida with her significant other and enjoys kayaking, biking, swimming; all things fun, and sun.

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2 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Wonderful article We do often forget how to play or have fun.
    Really we just need to get in touch with our inner child i.believe. Look to our creative side and let go of the days stress. Meditate and Create…what ever you enjoy or try something new. Great topic cause we do often have to overcome the ghost kn the closet in order to move on.

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