There’s a wall in every one of us.
Sometimes it’s freshly painted and untouched.
Sometimes it’s been patched over, painted beige, and left to sit quietly in the background.
It’s the blank wall that lives behind the meetings, the deliverables, the doing.
The one we stopped decorating the moment we decided being functional was more important than being free.
But here’s the thing about a blank wall: it’s not a void.
It’s an invitation.
An open canvas. A silent ask.
“What do you long to express, but haven’t made time for?”
NOW: The Wall We Learn to Ignore
We all get good at moving fast.
We fill our lives with structure, strategy, and execution.
We manage time. We manage teams. We manage ourselves.
But in doing so, we often stop making.
The artist in us—be it literal or metaphorical—gets quiet.
The one who connected the dots no one else saw.
Who created from instinct, not outcomes.
Who chased curiosity, not productivity.
For me, that wall is my art.
The art of narrative. Not just the design of words, but the design of meaning.
Building mosaics of emotion and insight.
Creating form out of fragments.
Letting beauty emerge from the bits and pieces.
Ask yourself:
What’s the blank wall in your life?
What did you once love that now gathers dust?
What have you painted over in the name of being “practical”?
The Now is about noticing what you’ve stopped doing, not because you didn’t love it, but because you forgot how much it loved you back.
NEW: The Power of Rediscovery
Standing in front of a blank wall doesn’t mean you have nothing to say.
It means you finally have space to say something meaningful.
This is the joy of rediscovery:
The thrill of a new color.
The first mark that turns nothing into something.
The return of a feeling you thought you lost.
It’s not about being perfect.
It’s about being present.
Here’s what I’m learning:
~ Your creative self never disappears. It just waits.
~ The threads of your identity are still there, waiting to be woven into something beautiful.
~ You don’t need a plan to begin. You just need to trust the first stroke.
Ask yourself:
What’s one thing you can do this week that is completely impractical, but deeply expressive?
What have you buried under “busy” that deserves light again?
The New is a return to color. To texture. To the parts of you that create, not to impress, but to feel whole.
NEXT: Living with a Wall that Reflects You
Imagine a life where your blank walls are never left blank for long.
Where you live not in the margins, but on the mural.
Where your self-expression shows up in how you speak, how you build, and how you lead.
Where your narrative is no longer scripted for others, but composed like a mosaic, one bold piece at a time.
That’s what it means to live from the inside out.
To let your story be seen not just in your strategy, but in your soul.
Ask yourself:
What story does your wall tell right now?
What do you want it to say tomorrow?
The Next is not about more efficiency.
It’s about more resonance.
More of you, fully present in the picture.
THE PAYOFF: Make Your Mark
We don’t just write stories.
We paint them.
We compose them.
We layer them.
We live them.
In the Now, we acknowledge the blank walls we’ve been ignoring.
In the New, we bring back what we’ve buried—not to impress, but to feel alive.
In the Next, we live as artists, each decision, each connection, each expression represents another tile in the mosaic that is our life.
So here’s your challenge:
Find your blank wall.
Don’t just stare at it. Start.
Because when we honor the art that’s inside us, we stop living in rooms and start building worlds.
Paint something that matters.
And if all else fails, make a mess.
It means you’ve begun.
"Every wall is a canvas, and every canvas tells a story." - Unknown
Hello, I am Tobin.
I see the world through a mosaic lens, fashioned by an infusion of AI. The sum of the parts is derived from remixing the individual pieces (digital tesserae) into a cogent visual story.
My superpower is finding the soul of your organization and then designing for alignment. This is achieved by building a belief system that leads to a differentiated narrative and a new path forward.
Follow me here on Substack and LinkedIn. Or DM at tobin@spatialshift.com for more information.
If you want to learn how to build alignment between you and your narrative, book a free consultation with me, and let's consider the possibilities.
My client roster includes Global 1000, Senior Executives, and Movements. And, the startup school of hard knocks.
Tobin, I’m very much in a “begin again” moment. Maybe we all are with how things seem these days. Your words touched me deeply with encouragement, forward-moving energy. TY!
“Standing in front of a blank wall doesn’t mean you have nothing to say.
It means you finally have space to say something meaningful.”