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I have considered myself to be an artist. When I was young, I grew up doing martial arts and writing poetry.

I always looked at life through this artistic lens; and with that artistic lens came an appreciation for mastery and for beauty. That lens of being an artist has served me very well throughout my life and frankly, through my ability to be a leader and to make an impact.

There's another side to being an artist that I believe is important to talk about: passion. If you are an artist, it means that you are willing to be immersed in something.

We live in a culture currently that is kind of shy when it comes to extreme words like ‘obsessed’ or ‘addicted’, because they can often bring with them negative connotations. To be immersed in something doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. I think sometimes culturally, we can miss out on a lot of the juice that life has to offer.

Life as an artist is the willingness to go to those extremes - to feel the highs, to feel the lows, but also to put yourself out there. If it's one thing that artists do on a regular basis, whether it's music or drawing or art, they're willing to express themselves publicly. They're willing to put themselves out there and be critiqued for it.

I think what our global culture needs the most is more people who are willing to be self-expressed. This has served me very well in my life because everything I've done, whether it's relationships or my professional career, have all benefited from this lens of being an artist.

I have this philosophy that I call ‘highest probability of deep impact’. I heard John Travolta say that he had been offered lots of different jobs over his career; but if he was offered a job that he didn't feel was worth it to him, then he wouldn't do it.

Many actors will take whatever jobs they can get, but he was so committed to the craft. He was so committed to the mastery that he was only willing to do jobs that he really liked and that he felt like he could do a good job with. And in his world, by the way, doing a good job means create something meaningful for other people.

One of the greatest things I ever learned from Tony Robbins was, “If you want to change your life, you have to change your standards.” My question to you would be: what is it that you are willing to turn down? What is it that you're willing to say no to?

You might say that you don't think of yourself as an artist. You should. The reason is because we are all the creators of our reality. We all have the same opportunity to create our own reality, the way we see fit.

Life can be as rich, as fun, as expansive, and as impactful as you decide. If your life currently is not exactly the way you want it, then this is a great opportunity for you to reflect on that and to think to yourself, “Maybe I can take more ownership of this ability to create my reality.”

The other thing that most people forget about is that you become an example of what's possible. I think a lot of people admire rock stars and movie stars that achieve at a very high level, not because they're famous, not because they have lots of money, not because they travel the world, but because they're so self-expressed.

The next best thing is to be a fan and to be in close proximity to the people that are like that. Still, I think it would be better if you decide to be your own version of that.

When you do that, you give other people permission to do the same thing. That's leadership. The greatest definition of leadership that I know is that: a leader is not someone who creates more followers but creates more leaders.

As you expand your leadership - whether that's in your company, your family, your community, or just your personal life - your ability to enrich your own life by being the artist of it gives other people permission to do the same.

Sometimes we can get stuck when we talk about business, and we talk about numbers and metrics, and how to create success and do this stuff. But life does not exist in a silo. Business is not something outside of life. It is a part of life.

Life is colorful and you have the ability to paint it with whatever colors you desire. So, I want you to take ownership today of being an artist of your life.

If you are a visionary leader who wants to quantum leap your impact and leave a legacy of achieving the impossible, I am here and the world is waiting. Email me at shannon@shannongraham.com

010 - Through The Artistic Lens