You can't make it without the 3 D's
You can't make it without the 3 D's
What makes some photographers more successful than others? These three key ingredients appear common in almost any recipe for success: a) Discipline, b) Dedication and c) Determination.
As an emerging photographer, dedication, discipline, and determination are essential traits that can help you achieve your goals in your photography career. These three attributes are related but not synonymous, and each plays a crucial role in helping you attain success.
Dedication involves committing yourself to a task or purpose. In photography, it means defining your priorities and goals and undertaking tasks related only to those priorities. Prioritizing your photography and making time for your creativity is crucial in achieving your goals. It is the direct route to attaining your dream of being a working Pro.
Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to control your attention, emotion, and actions in the presence of distractions. Having laser focus by committing to making less effort in areas outside your priorities is a form of discipline that speeds along the attainment of success. Juggling many hobbies is a fast way to be average at all those pursuits. Mastery in any one area takes a lifetime of focus only there. Establishing daily routines, such as setting aside time for your photo business and your photo life, is also important. In your busy life, no photography happens unless you make time for it daily.
Taking care of yourself is also critical in developing discipline. It requires energy, and getting needed rest, exercising regularly, and proper nutrition make discipline easier to wear. You will not only find it easier to stay focused and have more energy, but your tasks will seem less strenuous and more enjoyable. Loving yourself means exercise. Exercise takes discipline. Discipline takes discipline.
Celebrating success is also an important part of discipline. Finding some way, big or small, to celebrate the success and achievements gained from your disciplined approach is crucial. You’ve earned it and deserve it. Set short-term goals and hit them. A website, business cards, outward reach, celebrate every milestone, however small.
Determination, in contrast, means having discipline and passionately working towards your major goal through thick and thin. Determined people are fueled by failures, not discouraged by them. When faced with failure, determined people commit to finding out what they did wrong and then take corrective action. Those without determination simply quit, thinking, “I can’t do this.”
Being determined means you only attend to the actions that lead to success. Success is gained with strategic actions, not excuses or good intentions. Be determined to do the best you can do, not what others can do. Be determined to achieve success as you define it, not as others define it for you. Critique yourself against yourself. There is no competition here. There is enough of the pie for all of us. Measure your own success against yourself, where you were, and where you are now.
Gratitude has to be your attitude. Be thankful for your talent. This gift of being able to see the unseen and capture it in a compelling way to share with the world is a gift. Realize your gift. Know that not everyone can take pictures the way that you do. Know that not everyone has a visual talent. Be grateful. Be gracious. Be thankful for your eyes and your creativity.
Being thankful honors the universe and brings more positivity your way. Your bitching and negativity just perpetuates more, attracts more negativity and creates a cycle that only you can break.
As an emerging photographer, dedication, discipline, and determination are the traits that will help you achieve your goals. They require no magical powers, inherent qualities, or educational degree. They do take self-awareness, and a real passion to accomplish something meaningful with your photographs, and a desire to one day look back and feel pride in what you have achieved.
Define what matters, have laser focus, and establish your daily routines. Take care of yourself, no one can exercise for you, or make you healthier. Celebrate your success, and be fueled by your failures, and focus only on what you can control. Take strategic actions, and remember to be grateful for your eyes and your talent.
These things are essential in developing the discipline and determination that are necessary for success in your photography career. Yes this shit is hard. And yes. You can do this.
Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way, you’re right”. Shift your mindset to a positive way of thinking and go out and make some banger photographs.
See ya on the next one.
Carty.