Running your own business clearly has its ups and downs. With all the stress and everyday busyness that can get you bogged down, it can be easy to forget how great you are at what you do.
Reclaim Your Own Greatness
You, like many other photographers, might have a tendency to lose sight of their own greatness. Your greatness dates back the first time you picked up a camera. The first click of the camera set off a streak and a spiral of events leading to your greatness that you hold now.
After many years or just a few years, it can be easy to ignore our first time doing these things. The images might not have been great, either. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that there are somehow photographic prodigies out there who picked up a camera for the first time and had the skill of shooting a successful photo shoot. It doesn’t happen often, if ever. To find and reclaim your greatness, try taking the time to sit back and think about that first time with the camera in your hand. Or the first time you saw an image you took that stole your breath. Maybe that first compliment on one of your pictures will draw back that memory.
Take Pride in Making Great Art
Another reason photographers get bogged down is because they see photography all the time. Since you are in the realm of photographers, you are bombarded, even more so than the average human, by an astounding amount of images. You know what these images can be perfect for? Comparison.
You have to try your best to avoid the comparison of your own work with someone else’s in an envious light. Instead, take a closer look at the community as a whole. In this day and age we are surrounded by innovation, technology, and pressure, but here you are. Creating something that involves innovation, technology, and great pressure and you are creating something more beautiful than everything else. You are creating art. Art that will be preserved, remembered, and viewed for many years to come.
Remember Where You Came From
Likewise, taking back the art form also requires that you take back your own pride in photography. Don’t forget where you came from. Recalling memories about your first images are important but also your first memories finding help.
Calling back those mentors, sending letters to the professors, reaching out to the community members who helped teach you and support you in the beginning stages are invaluable influences. You might be far and away more successful than your mentors now, but you probably wouldn’t be the same person or photographer without them.
Set goals, No matter what
Lately, there also seems to be a stigma on goal-setting. Some say it’s cliche and cheesy and ineffective, but that’s simply not true. When it comes to a creative passion, setting goals for your business is crucial to success.
If you had your way, in a perfect world, art would be everywhere and no one would even need money! But that’s just not the reality you live in. You need money, you need to provide your services, and you need to set goals so that those things can happen and you can live the life you want to.
Your greatness is still within you. The triumphs and the trials of running a business might cause you to lose yourself or seem to lose your identity as the great artist that you are. Don’t forget that you are great, what you do is great, and what you are capable of is great, too. Set goals, remember your past influences, take pride in your own greatness, and reclaim it as your own.