We're taught at a very early age how to colour between the lines.

As we first learn to use coloured crayons, we're handed basic outlines of pictures. Maybe a farm animal, a favourite cartoon character or even our favourite food.

We're praised for our ability to choose realistic colours and keeping a steady hand of pencil strokes on the inside of the pre-determined lines.

If we were just talking literally and not in metaphors, of course colouring between the lines is important evidence of growing motor skills.

I'm not denying that colour books are a great activity, but many of us forget that life was always meant to be a blank canvas.

Life when it was first created, was a blank canvas, ready for whatever direction us humans chose to stride our paintbrushes.

Humans were never meant to follow specific lines.

Humans were not destined to paint a single art piece.

We were all given our own paintbrushes; nobody said we had to paint the same pictures.

The best part of going to an art gallery is observing the creativity displayed in multiple pieces. Whether that be different painting techniques, different colours, shapes or realism. That is what draws are attention. We find amazement in the display of different people's skills, thought processes and creativity.

An art exhibit with the same piece repeated throughout plain walls, is far less exciting.

While we may certainly choose to paint the same image over and over again, or colour between the lines when the pattern pleases us, life on earth does not have colouring guidelines.

I personally tend to prefer colouring books.

I find colouring books very relaxing, and often struggle to draw something without specific guidelines.

My creativity shines in ways that often don't include holding a brush or crayong. But sometimes I do enjoy the freedom of simply slapping colours on a canvas and/or doodling on a blank piece of paper.

And that's okay.

It's okay to take an ordinary colouring book and doodle on the sides, or even to swivel way past the lines to add shadowing.

It's okay to add a cape or silly hat to the pre-drawn octopus in your book.

Just because you may choose a colouring book page versus a blank state, doesn't mean you're forced to stay within the lines.

It's your piece of art — it's your life — you can choose do with it as you desire.

You can paint a green sun instead of a realistic yellow or orange sun.

You can toss the entire book for later, and let your hands sore free on a blank sheet of paper.

You can consentually paint or draw on atypical surfaces. Maybe a shoe, a table or even an arm.

You can be meticulous and ensure that not a single mark of crayon escapes those lines in your colouring book.

You determine your art path. It doesn't matter what another person chooses to do, your art is your own.

Art isn't meant to be compared. It's not a competition. There's no guidelines to choose a winner.

Just like art, life on earth isn't meant to be only black and white, or enclosed by fixed lines.

It can be black and white. It can have fixed lines.

But I urge you to remember that the crayon colouring before you, is controlled by your own hand.

Paint the life you want.