You are unique, just like everybody else.

Hi Everybody!

Today I just wanted to say that I am loving the Seth Godin blog post the other day about anxiety.

"Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance."

I am loving that perspective because it is so disarming. As a business owner in this day and age, the amount of challenges, opportunities, risks, rewards, changes in this business increase constantly. As a young photographer, you jump on board thinking you have a decent handle on this new fascination of yours, only to eventually realize that this train has MILLIONS of stops, THOUSANDS of fellow passengers. You are drawn in by the well-written blog posts, the style of this photographer, the equipment proficiency of that photographer, the seemingly endless amount of creative inspiration everyone else seems to already have....sooner, more, better, faster......than you.

Sound familiar?

The truth is, you are unique, just like everybody else.

The truth is, you CAN find yourself in the mirror of others, but the instant your gut turns in knots or your "inner critic" starts whispering in your ear...then outside influence may be changing from constructive to destructive. Do not take it personally if you get caught up in this, we all do from time to time. YOUR true path, as you discover it, will make you feel the very opposite. The very opposite....

The truth is, we all start from a unique place in this world, and our journeys should not be compared, but celebrated, admired, and encouraged. Our footsteps are our own.

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  Don't assume you've failed before you've even tried. Don't assume you'll succeed until you've thought deeply about what success looks like for YOU. Not for Jasmine Star, David Jay, Joe Buissink, Liana Lehman, David Beckstead, Christy Pelland, Tim Willoughby and certainly not Julie Watts!


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  Spend as much energy discovering yourself and your expression as you do discovering others and their expression. You have FAR MORE to learn inside about yourself than you may realize. You are fascinating. But you have much to learn. Don't we all?
  
  

The truth is, the minute you begin to TAKE NOTICE of the minutae in your life that strike a nerve, you'll begin cut through the overgrowth of the overwhelming cloud of EVERYONE ELSE'S output. Restlessness lies in constantly intaking the output of others.

Dane Sanders wrote a whole book about maximizing your individual strengths if you are considering a career as a professional photographer, Fast Track Photographer. If you are surprised that only about 20% of what I do in business is actual shooting, then you just learned the #1 difference between having photography in your life as a business versus photography in your life as a hobby.

Photography can serve you on your journey in many, many ways. Relax and enjoy the ride, whereever it may take you....

This is me and the hubby in 1995 when I was enrolled in my first BW photography class in high school, when I "knew" I was going to become a clinical psychologist! Little did I know where I would be a decade and a half later....