Becoming Your Life’s Master Curator
By Angel Santiago
“How you dress, eat, groom, and decorate your home, for example, says a lot about who you are and your internal state – as within, so without.”
“You are a product of your environment. So, choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success – or are they holding you back?”
– W. Clement Stone
Have you ever seen an episode of Queer Eye? If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. You will learn some great tips on how to improve your life. On the show, five experts called the Fab Five set out to help individuals refine their wardrobes, grooming, diet, cultural pursuits, and home décor. In essence, they help people become curators of their own lives.
Curators are people who select, organize, and look after items in a collection or exhibition, so if you have ever attended an art gallery, a curator was responsible for its development and care. I want to invite you to take on this role in your life. Select, organize, and look after your life as if it were a priceless collection in development. Curate every aspect and pay special attention to your environment.
The surroundings and conditions in which you live and operate, including the natural world as a whole, are crucial to curating a precious work of art out of your life. And if you are like most people, it is likely that you are already invested in and intentional with your business, relationships, fitness, and spirituality. Why not become a master of your environment, as well? If you are a driven person, you know exactly what you want and where you’re going. That’s great, but does your environment support that?
It is said that you are a product of your environment. So, if your environment can influence you, then you also have the ability to influence and curate it as well. How you dress, eat, groom, and decorate your home, for example, says a lot about who you are and your internal state – as within, so without.
Think about yourself in each of these areas. Are you presenting yourself in a way worthy of a priceless exhibition? You must also understand that how you present yourself to the world has nothing to do with the world and everything to do with you. It has to do with having a sense of pride in who you are. And there is a difference between having a virtue of pride and being prideful.
Pride is a commitment to achieve self-esteem by taking credit and responsibility for acting on one’s judgment in accordance with principles and values. Pride is about feeling gratified and honored by something, feeling satisfied or happy about a fact or event, while prideful is feeling superior or arrogant. Can you think of something you feel a great sense of pride in? What is it about that thing that makes you feel that way? Once you figure that out, I invite you to bring that same quality into becoming a master curator in every aspect of your life.
Blessings,
Angel
