Constant driving toward accomplishing a goal without planned times to reflect and celebrate is not a good strategy for long-term success. It’s a strategy for burnout, frustration, and killing your passion.
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Some days it feels like someone, something or the world in general is out to get you, knock you down, trip you up, and thwart your highest hopes, greatest dreams and best plans.
Am I right?
Other days you feel like you’re unstoppable, invincible, and moving mountains. Yes?
What’s the difference? What’s the worst enemy of your success? Not the only, just the worst.
Answer these questions to reveal your worst enemy…
- Has anyone broken more promises to you than you?
- Has anybody lied to you more than you lie to yourself?
- Is anybody a worse enemy to you than you are?
Let’s make this simple. I’ll answer for you. No. On all three counts. Disagree? Go back to question #2.
We’re the problem.
Before you crawl in a hole or pull the covers back up over your head, hear me out. Don’t hide behind the smoke and mirrors of self esteem mumbo-jumbo that really masks the issue. I’m not saying you’re a mistake, a screw-up, irrevocably flawed, or that you’re not valuable.
What I am saying is:
If you’re the problem, you’re responsible.
Before you buckle underneath the weight, you must know that this is GOOD NEWS because:
- Responsibility is power.
- Responsibility is the ability to respond.
- Responsibility = Response + ability.
Don’t miss this.
Let it ruminate. Let it seep into your being like a river of clean water removing and refining any junk left over from someone else’s or your own harsh words and criticism.
Realizing, embracing and being empowered by it gives you freedom to stop hiding. I don’t know what you hide behind but there are some common smoke and mirrors:
- degrees
- career/job title
- finances
- fans/followers/friends
- subscribers/page views
- equipment
- marital status
- looks
- body
- religion
What would you add to the list?
I’ll be back this week to unpack these ideas more. Until then, remind yourself of who you are.
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Day 14 of 365 Photo Project: Smoke & Mirrors Self Portrait
Photo Equipment
Canon EOS 5D full frame (not Mark II
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
Alien Bee light (set to left of the stool with incense)
Grid Spot
Camera Settings
Shutter Speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 100
Other Equipment
8 sticks of incense (placed on stool in front of me)
2 wavy mirrors (in front of the incense stool leaning against wall)
Dark hoody sweatshirt
According to Simon Sinek, SUCCESS is when reality catches up to your IMAGINATION.
So are you successful? Is your reality catching up?
Simon Sinek. He’s a why guy. And he thinks we should all be too… START WITH WHY.
He’s brilliant at quotable statements like the title of this article, which is a variation on something he said. Here’s another:
“The more people you inspire, the more people will inspire you.”
Today I spent the better part of the day at LifeFinder with celebrity and humanitarian photographer Jeremy Cowart and 180 other creatives. What an amazing creative force assembled in one location. You must know that inspired images and writing will come out of today. I imagine that Jeremy will be inspired beyond imagining for all the people he has been inspiring on his tour.
Ironically, even though I was pretty much full to the brim on inspiration, when I got home I found more. Apparently filmmaker Ron Howard enlisted the help of hundreds of thousands of people… believing they could inspire him. They submitted images in hopes of being chosen for a short film project.
8 photos were chosen by Ron Howard himself to be the catalyst for an original short film. Take a peek… it’s only online until Monday morning! You can even read the story behind the 8 winning photos.
As you watch, think about how you might bring your reality one, two, even three steps closer to your wildest imaginings!
Imagine all the work you do to improve and promote your craft (be it photography, art, writing, scrapbooking):
- social media like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums
- networking via events, conferences, conventions
- education through books, magazines, videos, online training
- and of course, the actual work of creating something from nothing
The list goes on because it truly seems endless. All the things we “need” to do to get our names and work recognized and accepted by the powers that be, the industry we participate in, or the people we respect and admire.
When it all comes down to it, I have to wonder if we’re really ready for what we dream. I don’t wonder about the hope, the dream, the intention, the plan. I wonder about the reality, the grit, the determination to make those hopes and dreams survive in the real world where commerce meets creation. I wonder, because I see so many creatives hiding (myself included).
Here are five reasons YOU MUST STOP HIDING…
- When you stop hiding your fear, you open yourself up to acceptance.
- When you stop hiding your inability, you open yourself up to being taught.
- When you stop hiding your insecurity, you open yourself up to being encouraged.
- When you stop hiding your work, you open yourself up to being recognized.
- When you stop hiding your personality, you open yourself up to standing out.
We all do it—hide behind our work, our words, our image, our avatar. We hide behind humor, sarcasm, exaggeration. We hide behind others paving the way and blazing the trail before us. Secretly we may wish to be them, but inwardly wonder if we could handle it all. We may show glimpses, parts of our work and selves that we’re comfortable sharing, but few really go for it and lay it all on the line.
If there were one skill we could develop to increase our odds of success it would be to stop hiding. Last month I wrote The Definite Guide to Winning Photo Contests and the answer is shockingly familiar… and it works.
This month, as I recover from the overwhelming barrage of education, inspiration, networking and creativity that happened at WPPI, I’m convinced that if you (and I) were to simply focus on this one thing for the rest of the year that we would be more successful than we have ever been in the past.
Manual: Page 105
Images: Looked through a few photography magazines I picked up at the WPPI tradeshow.
