Coloring Outside the Lines

I have always been a colors-outside-the-lines kind of person.

Literally.

As a kid, no matter how hard I tried to stay inside the lines, I always managed to get just a little bit of coloring outside of them.

And it bothered me.

I wanted my coloring pages to look neat. I wanted them to look like the other kids’ pictures. But for some reason, mine always looked a little messy.

And that never really went away.

I am still a little bit of a colors-outside-the-lines kind of person.

I have just learned to be okay with that.

Because even though I might not color inside the lines, I still get the picture colored.

So recently, when I put a blog into AI and AI told me I needed to cut it by 30% for social media, I was a little offended.

Doesn’t AI know I don’t color inside the lines?

I loved the piece the way it was. I loved the story. I loved the way it unfolded. And I did not want to cut 30% of it just to make it fit inside the lines of how people are “supposed to write on social media.”

I know the lines are there for a reason.

But I also know myself.

If I spend too much time studying the lines, I start feeling pressure to stay inside them. And eventually, I start feeling confined by them.

There are plenty of formulas for how to do things.

How to write.

How to lead.

How to post on social media.

How to wash your dishes.

And I am sure many of them work.

But I think sometimes we spend so much time looking to the right and the left to see how everyone else is coloring that we start questioning the way we are doing it.

We start wondering if we should be doing what they are doing. Following their seven steps. Using their formula. Doing it the way that worked for them.

And sometimes, sure, that can be helpful.

But sometimes, you just need to stop looking around and color your own picture.

I have spent plenty of years wishing my coloring looked a little neater.

These days, I am okay with a little coloring outside the lines.

Because the picture still gets colored.