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Salvador Dali was the second child born of that name to his parents. The first child of that name died nine months before Dali, as we refer to him in surrealist art. Can you imagine being created and birthed as a replacement for the first-born son of your parents? Can you imagine the familial trauma and grief Dali was born into? And what did Salvador Dali do to cope with his parents’ words, “Your brother would have…” as he was compared against the absent brother his entire family longed for?

Dali did the opposite of becoming the new first child.

Dali became, instead, his most authentic self — an international icon in the surrealist art movement.

Walt Disney was born into a hardworking family, contributing to their finances with a paper route for most of his childhood. His father failed at many businesses and was so hard on his children that it is widely suggested that Walt’s childhood was a time of physical and mental abuse. To make up for his loneliness, Walt anthropomorphized farm animals into friends. Because Walt’s family needed his monies from the paper route, and his love for art was scoffed at by his father, Walt created opportunities to earn money secretly so that he could attend art courses on the weekends. Many of his first drawings were published in the STARS AND STRIPES magazine for the armed forces when he became a red cross ambulance driver, drawing cartoons on the sides of the ambulances in his spare time.

Something in Walt Disney would not be stilled.

A difficult past too often dictates a person’s future, and while it does not have to, why not do what Walt Disney did? Or what Salvador Dali did? Why not utilize the lessons, energies, wisdom, and experiences of your past to transform your current situation into an AUTHENTIC LIFE YOU CAN LOVE!