Reflections on Bob Ross - Painter/Teacher/Guru/Spiritual Hero

“Look around. Look at what we have. Beauty is everywhere—you only have to look to see it.”

— Bob Ross from "The Joy of Painting"

Recently, I had the profound pleasure of re-discovering Bob Ross on Netflix through the series, "Beauty is Everywhere". I vaguely remembered him from PBS when he was airing his show there. At the time, it didn't mean a lot to me because I was not interested in painting. Plus, he was so darn cheerful all the time! I just never took the time to watch the show to really understand what Bob Ross was all about. Now that I have, I want to briefly share some of my thoughts with you.

One of the first things that struck me about Bob Ross is that his method of painting followed a specific pattern. In other words, he found a method that worked for him. That is not to say he never tried to find ways to improve or change it to make it work better. It looked like constantly worked to improve on it. He could whip out a painting of good quality in about the time it takes to warm a TV dinner in the oven. He did this consistently for the entire time he was on the air. As a guru/teacher, he taught his students that exact same thing. He told them that their painting was their world. They could could make it their own. He helped budding artists to be confident and explore how to make their world as beautiful as possible.

This concept translates over to the pursuit of the spiritual life as well. This is our world. We create our pathway to reach We have to have the confidence to explore and experiment to find the way that works for you. That may or may not be in your comfort zone or it may be stretching out to find resources to move toward your goal of spiritual fulfillment. It is up to you and your relationship with the Source of everything to make that happen. Just Bob Ross didn't dictate how to paint or what tools to use to create that world, we also need to try out tools to see whether or not they work and if they don't, we need to put them aside to find what we need to create our masterpiece.

Another thing I learned from watching Bob Ross is that he knew that it was important to always be flexible in painting and life. He also recognized that setbacks and mistakes (Happy Accidents, he called them) can work in your favor if you choose to work through them. When you watch the show, there are times when Bob Ross makes a mistake on his painting. Instead of panicking, Bob Ross would simply find a way to incorporate that error into the final product.

The pursuit of becoming Spiritual Heroes is a tough task with a lot of room for error. That being said, we will not always get it right. Sometimes we have to figure out how to incorporate those errors into that pursuit and make the final product even better because of it. We don't need to panic. We need to be flexible and open enough to adjust our thinking, resources or relationships to make those "Happy Accidents" work for us.

Bob Ross understood the importance of investing in others, not simply himself. Of course, his show was an avenue for promoting his business and products. However, he never let that cloud his goal of helping others to become better people through teaching them to paint and dispense helpful advice along the way. He used his show as an avenue to improve the lives of those around him and who came into his circle of influence through the show and his business.

For those of us who are on the path to becoming Spiritual Heroes, we need to remember that we influence those around us all the time. They pay attention to our words, actions and attitudes. Are we so invested in being spiritual that we are no earthly good or do we take the time to recognize that we are a role model to others? Bob Ross taught us that it is OK to have everything you want in life - as long as you help everyone else get what they want first. His was a truly servant leadership style. We also need to be servant leaders for others who come into our circle of influence. We want people to be better for their time with us.

If you haven't done so, take the time to watch Bob Ross either on PBS or Netflix. There are so many more powerful lessons we can learn from this humble, gentle teacher to make our lives better everyday. Along the way, we may even learn to paint a picture or 6.

Namaste,

Tim