5 Life Lessons from My Journey with Adult Coloring Books

I want to be the fish in the mint cool river Free flowing escape on my mind

I started my coloring journey in late June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. I had been gifted the book a couple of years ago. Once a while, the book silently crept into my thoughts and was easily ignored. When it knocked on my mind's door, I would calm it down by telling myself that colors needed to be bought.

I believed that I didn't have an artistic bone in my body. I can't sketch or paint or sculpt or play an instrument or sing. So how can I color? That too pages and pages of intricate drawings in Enchanted Forest. I would be really bad at it. I would fail.

I got my starter kit in June and till now I have done 23 pages of coloring. I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It is meditative and therapeutic at the same time

I have learned some valuable life lessons till this point in my journey.

LL1: Passion / interests are all around. Staring me in the face. I just have to take a risk and jump right in. 

The title page. Name not written.
Perhaps waiting to learn calligraphy.

A passion or interest may be something you have never tried before. Or you think you might be bad at. I smashed the belief that I can't color in 2 steps.

Step 1 was to just buy a starter kit of colors. Not too expensive or too cheap, so that I would not feel bad if I had to give them away when I failed.

Step 2 was to start colouring. I started on the title page (and did not write my name on the page). Again, playing it safe, so that others could use the book if, I failed.

The voice in my head still said "I can't" & "I will fail". Till I started. And I saw that I wasn't as bad as I thought.

At work (as in personal life), don't let your mind prevent you for starting something you have never done before. Jump right in give it a go with an open mind. Start with small steps. Celebrate the wee successes. 

Emerald Ice and Orange Lollie castle

LL2: People's reactions matter. I need validation. I choose my "validators". I keep them close.

We all need validators. People who give us honest critical feedback, praise and encourage us, share thier knowledge, or just guide us to try different things. These people also provide us a safety net so that we can jump off a cliff, once a while.

I would not have continued to color and share my work, if my friends did not like, comment, give and seek advice on coloring. Some of them artists themselves. 

I also followed social media groups of people who openly share of themselves and thier art. To read and watch what they do, thier techniques, thier creativity. I am so grateful to them.

Building a network of people who don't hesitate to give critical feedback is essential to grow our careers. We also need people who advise, encourage, and cheer us on. Validators at work.

So many mistakes in this one

LL3: I will make mistakes. It's OK. The world will not end because of my mistakes.

To me, my coloring mistakes are glaring and stand out. I spot them immediately. Yet I still shared pictures with mistakes. Why? To get feedback. To seek some balance from the perspectives of others.

Often, others could not see what I thought were glaring mistakes (or they were too polite to tell me). So it wasn't as bad as I thought.

I do not know of a single project or initiative where mistakes and setbacks have not been an integral part. Professionally, I've learned to move on. Not to rethink, rehash, relive, and redo, ad nauseum. Rather, I spend time to understand why something went wrong so that I can prevent it from happening again. Or to learn how to recover from setbacks. 

I've learned that mistakes do not define who I am. Mistakes are a part of my journey.

This bountiful chest of treasures reminds me

that I need to focus on all that I have

and not what I have lost

LL4: The more I learn, the more I am able to learn. 

I am fortunate that my work requires me to learn something new everyday. The more I learn, the more, I think, I am programming my brain to learn.

For someone who thought I could not color - a skill that young children have and revel in - I learned about coloring in my 50s. About colors that compliment each other. About contours, highlights, hues and shades. About different types of coloring methods.

I realise that I can learn anything I want to, if I really want to. At my pace and time.  

So learn something new regularly. Get a mentor or coach or teacher if you need one. Or just learn by yourself. Explore. Experiment. Practice to become better. 

Any direction is the right direction if I am centered well

LL5: I can be individualistic and creative even when I have to work "between the lines"

I believe in processes, rules, regulations. They give me comfort. They make things consistent. They can also be restrictive and boring. And sometimes just wrong. Even then, I don't break rules or violate processes. I respect them enough to change them if they don't work for me.

Starting on a journey of coloring between the lines felt strange. Would I get frustrated and give up if I was forced to conform?

Conform, I didn't. Leaves were colors other than green. Animals were purple and red. I added lines, and curves, and dots. 

The workplace is also full of standards, rules, and processes that have to be followed. Yet you can question status quo, bring in creativity, find an innovative solution, change the way you and your team work. All with a goal to improve outcomes and experiences.

My coloring journey continues. I am sure there will be much to learn and change. 

If you are interested in trying your hand at coloring, I started with:

1. Enchanted Forest - An Inky Quest and Coloring Book by Johanna Basford

2. Starter kit of colors consisted of water soluble  color pencils and gel pens from HobbyCraft India