OpportunityScape Called Life

Remember how exciting it was as a child to be given a big blank sheet of paper, a palette of paints in various hues and a paintbrush or two? How thrilling it was to be told we could paint anything we wished on that paper?

We’d get busy right away. Imaginations would run riot. A dab here, a stroke there, a careful mixing of two or three colours to create a unique new shade. A whole sheet of plain paper. To make of it as you please.

That’s pretty much how it works with life and the various opportunities on offer. When we first start out, life is like that nice, clean, plain sheet of paper. We’re also offered a palette of opportunities. We pick up our talents and skills – like paintbrushes – and go about creating a picture. To each our own depending on the hues we use, the techniques we employ and the skills we pick up. Each of us is in the process of painting our own unique picture called Life.

A friend of mine told me an amusing little story about her tryst with painting as a child. When presented with a clean sheet of paper, paints and brushes, she chose to depict a beautiful sunset over the ocean. She captured the myriad colours of the sky reflected in the gentle waves of the ocean to perfection. Then, dabbing a brush in black, she proceeded to add the silhouette of a little boat bobbing gently in the water.

She stepped back to take in the picture. The boat displeased the little girl. “May be it should be a little bigger,” she thought. She dabbed on more black paint. It still seemed slightly off to her. So she added a few more strokes. Now, it appeared somewhat uneven, so she painted over it in more black paint. The tiny fishing boat was soon growing into a mid-size yacht. Still dissatisfied, the girl tried to rectify it further, painting over it frantically.

Before long, a dark gigantic silhouette of an “ocean liner”, more a splotch of black paint, dominated what was left of a once beautiful sunset. The painting was ruined. “It was a giant black blob with some sliver of colours at the edges,” my friend concluded with a sigh. “Worse, all that black paint had seeped through the paper, made it soggy and ultimately, ripped a hole in the picture.”

Of course, this is just an amusing anecdote about someone’s purported lack of artistic abilities. But it could hold a lesson for us all as we go about painting this OpportunityScape called Life.

How often do we get so bogged down by insignificant details, obsessing over them to such an extent that we completely lose sight of the bigger picture? Do we sweat the small stuff, agonise and nit-pick to such an extent that we end up ruining the wonderful opportunities life has provided for us? It is easy to get caught up in the constant whirlwind that is our lives and let the little things take over.

As we near the end of another year, let’s make it a point to step back for a little bit. Take a breath. Take in the bigger picture. Ask for guidance. Gain some perspective. Stop letting the little things drive you nuts. Introspect. Evaluate. Exhale. Then truly exhilarate in the wonderful OpportunityScape called Life.