We all need help sometimes to understand or communicate complex ideas.  There are lots of tools we can use to do that, and metaphors are among the most powerful.  A metaphor indirectly compares one thing to another, implying that they share similar characteristics.  To the extent the comparison is valid, it can help us understand the newly introduced concept.

Metaphors also affect our way of looking at a situation – once we define a comparison, we tend to think in those terms.  This can either serve us or hurt us.

For example, if we say “It’s a dog eat dog world”, how are we going to think about the people we interact with every day?  If “Business is a battle and there are winners and losers”, how will we approach negotiations with a client or a vendor?  It’s not too likely that a business person using a war metaphor to define their world view will think win-win.

The same fact applies to our life.  We often have metaphors we aren’t consciously aware of, and these metaphors affect the quality of our interactions.  Metaphors can serve us or they can sabotage us.

If, like the previously mentioned business man, we think that life’s a war, how do we react to others?  That metaphor doesn’t really serve us.  Sure, we can think of examples where life might seem like a battle, but we can with equal validity think of examples where life is joyous.   Our metaphors help determine which examples we notice.

We have a choice in this.  We can live with the metaphors we picked up unconsciously over our lifetime, or we can actively consider options and choose one that serves us. 

A metaphor I’ve chosen for life is to live it as “A work of art in progress”.  I like it, and for now it serves me well.  One of the things I like about it is that the “…in progress” part gives me permission to change if a better concept comes along.

Living life as a “work of art” automatically implies creativity and fresh thinking.  It allows for, and actually encourages, originality. 

Art can be collaborative and interactive – artists from various disciplines often inspire and help each other – so there’s room for social interaction and joint creation.

Perhaps what I like most is that being an artist is a process and the best artist is often more interested in the process of creating that necessarily the end result.  And the art is refined as judgment and technique and taste are developed.

A potter doesn’t throw a lump of clay on a wheel and walk away in disgust because a beautifully proportioned bowl wasn’t instantly created.  The artist works with the raw materials available.   They apply their skill and unique art, continually refining.  The end result is beauty made real and brought to the world - even though they started with something as unremarkable as a lump of mud.

I like that metaphor – feel free to use it yourself.  Until, of course, you find one that serves you even better.

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