The Art of Success: Be Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci

Dear Readers,

One of the many cool things about living in NZ is seeing the new day first. While Italy and other parts of the world won’t celebrate Leonardo’s birthday until tomorrow, I get to wish him a happy birthday today!

Born: April 15, 1452, Vinci, Italy
Died: May 2, 1519, Amboise, France (aged a youthful 67)

Aries … passion and fire…independence, pursuing self-interests, and showing leadership… Leonardo continues to inspire me. In fact, I wrote a book dedicated to him to uplift us all:

THE ART OF SUCCESS: LEONARDO DA VINCI

details here: https://www.thejoyfulartist.co.nz/the-art-of-success-leonardo-da-vinci-2/

“Often people who Criticize your life are usually the same people who don’t know the price you paid to get where you are today.” ~ Justin Smith

Fight the good fight

Remember—we always have to fight for our dreams….but it’s a fight worth winning.

Elton John was told to be a bank worker by his father.
Lady Gaga was bullied and treated like trash.
Oprah Winfrey was told she’d never make it unless she changed her name.
I’ve been bullied, berated and blamed for chasing my dreams…but I chased them anyway!

Be inspired by your muses, dive deep into a good book, listen to a podcast or create a passion and purpose journal to keep your dreams alive.

How can you fight for your dreams?

How I fight for my dreams…

As a writer, word by word I fight for my dreams.

Sometimes I don’t like writing. Sometimes writing doesn’t like me. But there is something upon which writing and I can agree—we love finishing.

Finishing a sentence

Finishing a scene

Finishing a page

Finishing a book

. . .And sending it out into the world

Whatever you begin—finish.

One step at a time. One word at a time. One job interview at a time. . .or nothing happens.

Something else, that sustains me is the joy of finishing and knowing my works of heart have brought joy, wisdom, healing, inspiration or comfort to others. Check out the video below to see one happy recipient of a book I gifted to one of my readers. Joy begets joy.

Leonardo is one of my favorite muses. I hope you enjoy this wee excerpt from The Art of Success: Leonardo da Vinci

Find Your Element

Leonardo’s father recognized his exceptional gift for drawing and helped him hone his talent by apprenticing him to Andrea del Verrocchio, a master painter, sculptor, and engineer.

However, Leonardo also self-taught his way to excellence, learning new skills and tackling subjects he passionately wanted to understand but had little knowledge of.

Have you found your point of brilliance? Maybe you’re exceptional in drawing, dancing, cooking, or other fields. If that talent is combined with your deepest interests, values, ambitions, and joy, that’s where you ought to focus.

Whether you know your elemental strengths already or you’re at a loss, it’s equally important to try new things.

If you don’t branch out from what you have already mastered you cannot grow. You may discover a point of brilliance you never knew you possessed. In humans, as there is in hills, sometimes there’s a vein of gold that you never knew you owned.

Your Challenge

One way to discover your strongest skills and natural talents is to ask people close to you, “What’s my superpower?”

Notice all the things you love to do while expressing your unique talents, and list past activities and accomplishments that accurately reflect these abilities.

What are some possible ways that expressing your qualities, talents, and skills may fulfil current or future needs? How can you serve?

Pick the places that you want to be great, that you want to focus your energies on and do that—understanding that you’re probably not going to be great at everything.

~ Ursula Burns, CEO

The Power of Passion

“Without love, what is there?”

If you’ve been following me for a while now you’ll know I’m passionate about passion. In fact, I wrote a book dedicated to the power of passion: How To Find Your Passion And Purpose: Four Easy Steps to Discover A Job You Want and Live the Life You Love ( Available in eBook, paperback, hardback, print and audio)

Recently, during one of my nocturnal sojourns, I came across the term, Sacred Passion. With searing insight, I realised this was the missing link in how I had approached the transcendental power of passion. It is source energy from Creator.

When people are pursuing something they are passionate about their drive and determination is infinite. They become like pieces of elastic able to stretch to anything and accommodate any setback. People immobilized by fear and passivity snap like a twig. They lack resilience.

Passion gives people a reason for living and the confidence and drive to pursue their dreams. Leonardo was a man of many loves and deep obsessions. These passions imbued him with infinite energy—powering his creativity, courage, resolve, and tenacity.

As Leonardo once said, “No labor is sufficient to tire me.”

Even when he was exhausted by life, his passion sustained him.

Your Challenge

What will passion do for you?

The really important stuff is not in my résumé. It’s what has gone on almost unnoticed in the secret chambers of the heart.

~ Isabel Allende, author

Teach What You Want To Learn

Leonardo found purpose and fulfillment in teaching. As have other highly successful men and women in possession of curious minds, and ennobled with a love of learning. Polymath Tim Ferris, for example, sees himself not as a wealthy entrepreneur but as a teacher.

“It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful,” Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers: The Story of Success.

Leonardo’s feathers of higher learning were the quills with which he wrote his notes. He believed, and knew from experience, the tremendous power of books and words to create miraculous flights of the mind.

He wrote about what he wanted to learn, and found extraordinary success, in sharing that knowledge with others.

During my former life as a therapist, in coaching and counselling sessions with clients when they said they didn’t know how to get unstuck, or how to find answers, I gently encouraged them to consider writing a blog post which I, or they, could share with other people who may also be stuck. It’s incredible how the thought of helping others motivates them. And in turn, they help themselves.

Recently, after receiving spiritual guidance, I started teaching the joy and freedom of Abstract Expression and the cathartic, joyful release of feelings through high-vibrational art.

Your Challenge

Teach what you want to learn—blog, video, paint, write a song or piece of music, write a book or create some art, create a course, host a seminar or speak at a conference or forum, Youtube or anything else that inspires and challenges you

Enjoy the ‘helper’s high’—the flow of positive endorphins when you step out of your comfort zone and inspire others

Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child,

and one teacher can change the world.

~ Malala Yousafzai, Noble Peace laureate

Beautiful Trauma: Ode to Joan Mitchell

Recently at the end of one of my Fun, Fab and Fearless art classes, I encouraged students to create a group painting to use up all the paints. I encouraged them to “go wild, bold and free and to feel deeply,” as I played Pink’s beautiful trauma song. In this video, you will see them creating, playfully and spontaneously. I had to make a few splices in the video as one of my lady artists had some not-so-beautiful trauma having had surgery on her face the day prior and was bandaged and still healing.

In an interview for The Guardian, Pink explained, “I named the album Beautiful Trauma because life is fucking traumatic. There’s natural disasters at every turn”. She continued, “but there’s beautiful people [sic] in the world that are having a blast and being good to each other and helping others. Because I can be dark, I try to constantly remind myself that there’s more good than bad.”

I loved the results these beautiful people created and the unflinching fearlessness of my newbie artists and I loved that they felt more confident as a result. The dynamic composition creates a centrifugal sense of movement with swirling forms in bright vibrant colours—just like a Joan Mitchell painting. Joan was a giant amongst giants. Many of her canvases were 110 1/4 x 142 inches (280.035 x 360.68 cm)! The original we created is small and towards the end of the video, you’ll see a mock-up in a larger format just for fun!

Embark on a Life-Changing, Scientifically Proven Fast-Track to Happiness—in Only Minutes a Day!

Tame anxiety, manage stress, overcome depression, change careers—and more. Success is living life on your terms and no one knows this better than the ultimate freedom-fighter Leonardo da Vinci.

To grab your copy from Amazon, click here>>getBook.at/TheArtofSuccess

To grab your copy from iBooks, Barnes & Noble and other great bookstores, click here>>https://www.draft2digital.com/book/323151

Here’s a quick round-up of my 3 other blog posts you may enjoy:

How to guard against envy

REDISCOVERING THE JOY OF PAINTING WITH OILS

STOP STOPPING YOURSELF

As always, I hope you find something of value in them.

Posted in: Blog