Stealing Like an Artist

There's always a third option you're not seeing.

Feminine, masculine, liminial. Solar, lunar, stellar. We're taught to choose between two paths, but the truth is there's always a third… the one that's authentically yours.

We get stuck believing there is only one singular path to getting what we want. It's usually the path that someone else has paved that we believe tracks the road to our own success, satisfaction, or growth. And while it's always interesting to learn how people built their own lives, emulating them exactly will never work for you.

Our own success doesn't come from our attempt to emulate what someone else has done to get what we want. It comes from examining what we see and project into their lives that we desire, and then making it our own.

It's almost like the concept of stealing like an artist.. except you're not stealing art, you're stealing the essence that you perceive in them that you want. But here's the catch: when you steal like an artist, you have to make it your own. The issue in art is if you don't insert your perspective, it will never be authentic to you and you'll always feel like something is missing. That something is you.

So I encourage you to take every opportunity where you see something aspirational to acknowledge that it's something you want, and then dig a little and ask yourself: What is it that I want exactly?

Because for the most part, we want freedom, love, to be cared for and taken care of. We see material wealth and really we want the freedom of expression that money lends itself to. We see confident and good-looking people on the internet and we want their confidence, not their nose, even though it might very well feel like that.

Here's the truth: we aspire to feel a certain way. When we look at someone and think we want what they have, what we actually want is how we imagine they feel. We're drawn to the energy, the emotional state, the sense of ease or power or freedom we believe they're experiencing.

And here's what matters: that projection is a map and guide for us. It's showing us the energy we want to cultivate, and that is something we can work with and follow. You're not looking at someone else's life wanting to live it, you're looking at the reflection of your own desires, dressed up in someone else's story.

That reflection is yours to claim. But only when you translate it into your own language, your own circumstances, your own third path. The resolution isn't in choosing between their way or no way. It's in recognizing that your way has always been there, waiting for you to trust it enough to walk it.