What Learning How To Paint Taught Me

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved art.

I always wished that I could paint or that I was born with some kind of talent like others had. For me, the ability to paint felt like something that people were born with, similar to inherently having a beautiful singing voice.

I realized that I carried this limiting belief throughout my entire life, which has stopped me from pursuing various activities simply because I thought some things are unachievable without natural innate talent. I really believed this deep inside, and I never even attempted to paint because of it.

Around a year ago, I started reading a little bit about philosophy, psychology, and religions. I wanted to educate myself about these things and to open my mind. I came across something very important, which is our belief system. Your beliefs shape how you see and interpret things.

I'll give two scenarios and show how someone's inner belief influences their perception and their emotional reaction.

Scenario one: you're a pretty girl and you know it. You see a group of guys looking at you and laughing. You're initial reaction is that they're nervous and one of them is thinking of approaching you. This reconfirms your belief about yourself and you'll feel even more attractive, and your emotions and body language will reflect that.

Scenario two: you believe you're an unattractive girl. You see a group of guys looking at you and laughing. You start to think that they're making fun of you and laughing at you. You start to feel anxious and embarrassed. Your body language reflects it and you start to make yourself smaller wanting to disappear and leave the area that you're in.

These are two exact same scenarios, interpreted completely different because of your inner belief. I bring this simple example to show you how your beliefs shape and influence your reality and perception.

Anyways, after learning about the limiting beliefs I carried with me throughout my life, I decided it's time to break out of them. One thing I was very passionate about is instilling the belief in myself that I can learn anything. I deeply love learning. I love improving and growing, and I didn't want to move forward with shackles on my feet, stopping me from achieving what I wanted.

I decided I was going to learn how to paint. The purpose of this was deeper than just art, it was to teach myself that I can achieve things without talent, and to do things I never imagined I would be capable of. To bring my dream desires to life.

I began painting around 10 months ago, and in the beginning I was really bad. But I stuck with it. I had this goal in my mind the whole time, "teach yourself that you can learn anything even if it feels impossible." I continued and failed, and made some really bad paintings. I was frustrated at times. But every once in a while, I created something that I couldn't believe. I would get unbelievably excited seeing the finished product. Even though some paintings I created seem like something simple, to me, it's something that I never felt I was capable of doing before. So it's a very big deal to me and it has a deep symbolic meaning, that with focused effort and consistency, you can learn anything.

I have my paintings on my wall, and every time I'm struggling to learn a skill, and it feels impossible, I just look at my paintings and remember, that I'm capable of learning anything I set my mind to, as long as I put in true effort and stay consistent.

I'm only a year in, and I've successfully broken out of my limiting belief. I no longer have something holding me back in terms of learning. I can learn anything I want. I am self-aware, and I realize I'm still a beginner when it comes to painting, but every single piece is something that's outside of my past capabilities. I have a long road ahead of me to improve, and the only thing I have to do is to remain consistent. Consistency is everything.

All in all, painting is deeper for me than just art. It's serves a strong symbolic purpose. It's serves as a memory of me breaking out of my limiting beliefs, and as a motivational thing that you I can learn anything.

It also makes me question, how many of us have never attempted something simply because we thought we wouldn't be capable of doing it? How many things are out there that people never try because they don't think they're going to be good at it? I can answer for myself, and it's a lot of things.

I no longer move forward in life thinking I'm not capable of learning something. Instead, I move forward understanding that whenever you start something new, you're going to be very bad at it. But if you get past that initial stage, the stage where most people quit because their incompetence discourages them, you will learn whatever you want.

Below is a collage of some of my paintings. Some are decent and some are really bad. I post them to show some of my progress. Every single painting, even if it's bad, is outside of my previous capabilities. I used to struggle to draw a proper star. I'm still a beginner with less than a year of experience, but I've learned so much in just 10 months. I can't wait until I learn to create proper portraits and realistic paintings. It feels difficult and far away, but I know it's achievable.