Paint Yourself With Many Brushes....Add Color to Your Life

So many people ask "So, what do you do?"...Most people have a simple answer.   "I am in finance", "Public Servant", "I work for a marketing company" "I'm a teacher"...etc.   Well, there are a few of us out there who have dreamt too many dreams or love to wear different hats! To us, that answer doesn't stay so simple for long.   Do you truly identify with your job description?   Is it necessary your job define the entire essence that is you?    For me, and many like me, this has never been the case.   We as human beings have an enormous amount of untapped potential and hidden talent just beneath the surface just waiting to be nurtured.   Growing up, my father was a police officer and I was so very proud of him.   However, when asked what my dad did for a living, my response was always "He's a police officer"...but it never felt like that was the answer best suited for him.   My father is an amazing artist!   Also, a philosopher, a historian, among many others.   And aren't we all?   Now, I get it...the whole "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" archetype is often discouraged.   We are taught to go after one thing, do it well, find stability, focus on job performance, and earn an honest living.   Like I said, that is all well and good, even admirable.   However, does that mean you need to shut off the other talents that are screaming to get out?   Or worse, not even hear them?  Become numb to them?   Abandon them?  I personally have begun defining myself in terms such as "wife", "mother", "daughter", "sister", "friend" first...and my career/s tend to follow.   However, believe it or not, for 10 years, I too had subscribed to a simple answer "I'm a Residential Real Estate Broker"....easy!   Or was it? 

 

 This house was sold, by yours truly, for over a million dollars!   The height of my career!   Should that define me?   Who I am?   Well, who I am is currently referral and a  "Broker" to boot which is considered a "Master of Real Estate"!  So, if you live anywhere near North Jersey...get in touch with me and I'll be more than happy to set you up with only the best agents.   Truth be told, many are not worth their salt!   Believe that! 

 

 

Since childhood, (now I sound like an old lady), I defined myself as a singer (and a talker!  Like, THE most TALKATIVE CHILD EVER CREATED!! Hence, the name of my blog.   Ahhh...it all makes sense now doesn't it?).   But really, that was me.   An inquisitive, talkative, girl who sang her heart out every chance she was given.   Did I want fame?   Maybe.   What mattered most to me was perfection.   It often got in the way of my dreams as perfectionists tend to think, a lot, and thinking interferes with talent and hinders true potential.  (The Art of Music.   Talent minus Interference (over thinking) = True Potential).   Don't ask me to find the writer of that book because it is so obscure I can no longer find it.   Although, The Art of the Game was another and maybe you guys can look that up but, I, for one, am not interested in doing that right now, and, besides, I've read it to death!!!   Anyway, at some point you grow up and realize you have to go to school and earn a living. (Or, go to school, and quit your job at AAA that probably would've accrued you a healthy 401k by this time in your life but was making more in one night singing for a high end entertainment company than a week there so...I quit.).   I never said creative people make the most responsible decisions, and that, in my opinion is due in large part to the many options easily available to them.  

 

Ok...So maybe I still sing to this very day.   Why wouldn't I?

Many of us have hobbies.   Knitting, fishing, woodworking, painting, cooking, writing, (blogging),playing an instrument... etc.    Why do we tend not to use these character traits or talents in our explanation of "what we do"...and why do we always use money or earning money as the descriptor?   Most musicians will tell you how frustrating it is when they are sitting around at events and someone asks them how many "records" (do people even use that term anymore lol?), anyway, records they sold?   It is an absolute insult to the very love of making music to reduce greatness or, rather, great moments, to how much money it made them.   How about how happy it made them.   Or, more importantly, how happy it made those around them.    How many people danced their first dance as husband and wife to beautiful music played by musicians?   How many first dates leading two people to fall in love began at a coffee shop with one guy playing guitar for nothing more than free coffee?   How many unknown writers have donned letters or sent cards with words that came to life, warmed the heart, or reduced the reader to tears by the pure sincerity and grace with which they were written?   How many of you have a child who has rocked on a wooden rocking horse or tiny rocking chair made by the hands of a man who worked in maintenance?   Is he a maintenance man or is he a talented craftsman?    I say he's both.  For me, I called him Poppy.   He was a liquor store owner, a soldier, a carpenter, a craftsman, a sculptor, and an artist.   And, he worked most of his later years as a maintenance worker/shareholder of a hospital.   (A maintenance worker...who designed the diorama used to present to the banks in order to get the funding to build said hospital).  

 

           My Poppy:Jack of All Trades/Master of Many
 

Recently, I am a full-time mother raising two little girls in diapers.   And, most of the time, riddled with anxiety.   So I write, knit, blog, sing, and play around with photography and graphic design.   The graphic design was not a degree from any accredited school...I actually went to school for education.   Graphic design came as technology grew and continues to grow.   My real estate listings familiarized me with making brochures, and designing them to show the property in the best light possible.   Photography was one of my favorite classes in high school!   Oh how I would love to develop my own pictures again with fixer in a "dark room"!  (Ok, now I really am aging myself! And yet, I still feel young and will continue to evolve.).    My newest venture is stock photography...getting my pictures published so marketing agencies could license or buy the rights to them.   I currently have over 100 photos approved and published for sale!    Does that make me a photographer now?   A graphic designer?   Does it only count if they sell?   I say who cares!  

 

                                 

 One of my recent photos up for licensing/copyright sale.

                                                

  Okay....you twisted my arm.....

                      

                                       

Published for Licensing/Copyright Sale: Lincoln Tunnel

Published for Licensing/Copyright Sale: Castle at One of the

 Oldest Wineries in the U.S.

 

Paint yourself with many brushes...and continue striving to ever evolving growth, experience, talents, interests, knowledge, and live a "life full of color"!!!   Who knows?   You may just surprise yourself...and those around you!  

Published for Licensing/Copyright Sale: "NYC Girls"

 Be Bright...Be Daring...Be YOU!!!

xoxo