Direction vs. Destination

1/28/24

January 28, 2024

Back in my art school days, I wasn't always a fan of abstract art. However, as I studied it more I came to really appreciate it and the artists behind it.

The reason is, with a lot of abstract art, the process the artist goes through to realize the final outcome — what you or I see in a gallery or museum — is not typically the purpose for making the art.

In abstract art, the process executed to reach the final outcome is the art. The final piece hanging in a gallery is the representation of the process it took to get there.

Similarly, as we think about where we want our lives and careers to end up, we would do well to focus on what we can learn and extract from each phase of the process toward a desired result.

Having goals and an end vision is useful and needed, but don’t focus so heavily on the specifics of what that final outcome must actually look like. You might do better to think of the end result as the ideal to strive for vs. nailing it exactly as planned. A direction, if you will, vs. a destination.

The reason is, so much discovery and growth happens in the process and if you’re not open to it changing you, changing your outlook, bettering you with more understanding as guidance to help you move further in the direction you’ve set for yourself, you could get to that goal destination and not be any better or smarter about how you got there. 

Meaning, you didn’t truly learn what it really took to arrive there, appreciate it, and be able to potentially repeat a similar process to move on to another, better direction. Or even be able recognize a better direction when it presents itself.

You are the abstract artist across the span of your life. Are you living your life following a particular direction or aiming for an end destination? I think the former has a richer legacy to leave.

--------------------------------------------------Updates

Stay tuned, on my YouTube channel, I plan to bring you audio/video versions of the Investors club newsletter messages. Don't worry, this newsletter is still on the exclusive place to get the first run of any of my Investor messages, but my plan is to start bringing past messages to life on my YouTube channel so more people benefit from them.You can also see the progress of my latest upcycled guitar builds as well as other music, art, and inspirational videos there. Like, subscribe and hit the bell notification to help out the channel. Subscribe to the Nick Venturella YouTube channel

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Songwriters Round Town​ (a songwriters in the round series)Sat. Feb. 17, 2024 at Imaginary Tea Waunakee, WI7-9pmThis is an all-ages creative experience where curated songwriters share their stories behind the songs they've written and invite the audience to participate in the conversation in between the music.

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My band, Gemini's Rival, will be releasing the new, updated version of our classic 2001 song, Wonder Woman.

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Stay positive. Stay healthy. Be kind.

Sincerely,

Nick VenturellaStrategic/Creative Professional