There are days on which we just wake up full of inspiration and motivation for work. It’s like ”inspiration fairy” came to visit us in our sleep and we don’t know what happened, so we jump out of bed excited and pumped up for work. But let’s be honest, most days are not like this. Most days we snooze our alarm, covering our head while thousand things we have to do that day run through our mind. It’s a completely normal thing and 98% of us go through it very often, so don’t worry, you’re not the only one. I’m an inspiration junkie. I love everything that kicks me in the butt and makes me jump out of be, chair, floor, whatever the place I’m currently procrastinating at and gets me going. There’s no rule to what makes me motivated the most. Sometimes it’s a good article I read online or a badass video from my favourite youtubers, sometimes an amazing song, a good book, a quote I hear or a good talk with someone who loves their hustle. But again, there are days I don’t have any of that and have to kick myself and get going. I read my share of amazing books that motivated me the most (if you’re interested I could do a blog post with book recommendations) and I’ve noticed a pattern in all of them. There are many ways of describing similar feelings and motifs authors want to pass on to their audience, but in the end for me, it came down to 9 simple rules I wrote down on a piece of paper and taped it above my PC screen so I can read it every day and remind myself to stay on the track. Today I wanted to share them with you. I hope they’re gonna be useful, if nothing, a good place to start in case you wanna write your own rules to follow when you get stuck.
- SUCCESS DOESN’T HAPPEN OVER NIGHT
I believe we’ve all realised this so far and there’s nothing more to add. If you want to succeed at whatever you’re doing and you’re just starting, make peace with the fact that it’s gonna take you 3-4+ years to get where you wanna be, which brings me to my second rule.
2. IT’S ABOUT THE JOURNEY AND LOVING THE PROCESS
As I already mentioned in one of my latest posts, there’s no finish line. If you don’t love your journey nothing you achieve will make you happy. Whether it’s a shit ton of money, fame, your work being published in a prestige magazines, landing your dream client. None of that will matter. You’ll get few hours of euphoria and then you’re still gonna have that empty thrive for something. It’s good to always thrive for more, but if you don’t enjoy even the bad days and the process of your self-discovery, growth as a master in your field and every new day of doing what you love above else, those big goals will only make you happy for a short period. Do it because you love it, not because of some end goal.
3. WORK YOUR ASS OFF
It’s currently 02:03 am. I’ve edited over 150 photos for a client and spent hours developing a new preset. I have an exam tomorrow and I’m writing this because I made a promise to you guys that I’m gonna publish a new post every week. No excuses. The more you put into your craft the more will come back. Every new day is an opportunity for you to learn, grow, work, find something new to implement in your workflow. Hustle. It’s okay to rest, but if you want to grow and I know you do, you need to work.
4. MAKE YOUR EVERY NEW WORK THE BEST WORK SO FAR
This can be really hard sometimes because just like I said in the beginning, there are days that inspiration slams doors right into our face. But if you work your ass off, these kind of things won’t happen that often. The point of this rule is reflecting. Every new piece of work is gonna be better in some way. Try critically reflecting to it and find things you’re proud of and on the other side, things you wanna improve. I promise that’s gonna help a lot.
5. SHOW UP EVERY DAY
There’s this great book by Steven Pressfield called The War of Art in which he talks about how every one of us is fighting with this thing called Resistance. I could surely relate to that. The best part of the book for me was the beginning. He writes about how he gets up every day, brushes his teeth, makes his breakfast, goes to work, sits down and writes. At the end of the day he closes his laptop and goes home. He doesn’t ask himself whether the pages he wrote were good or bad, all he knows is that he showed up and fought the Resistance. How powerful is that!
6. ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE PLEASED WITH HOW FAR YOU’VE COME
In one of my latest posts in which I wrote about choosing your life, I shared with you my growth as a photographer through three Summers of shooting the same model. I must be completely honest with you and say that I was surprised when I looked at all those photos together. Three years is a really short time when you think about it. And I was really proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone every new session I did with Bruna and how that resulted in visible growth. That also reminded me that I reflect way to little on my earlier work. It’s healthy for you to stop and tap yourself on the back for doing good work.
7. DO YOUR BEST
One of the most amazing quotes I ever read goes something like this: ” Always do your best. Your best is going to change, it’s gonna be different when you’re good and happy opposite to when you’re sick or sad. Under any circumstances, just do your best.” Period.
8. ENJOY EVERY STEP
How amazing it is being an amateur? You can allow yourself so many mistakes. You can learn on your own skin and there is no better teacher than learning that way. How amazing it is that you’re at the beginning of your career? That there are sooooo many things to learn, try, discover, fail at them, get up, learn some more than fail again, get up, learn, become better than you were yesterday? Enjoy every moment, because it will only happen once (that goes for life too).
9. INVEST IN YOURSELF AND YOUR ART
And by that I mean invest materially and intellectually. Read books, watch tutorials, spend time with yourself to find out what you love most and merge it in your art. Take care of yourself because you won’t be able to do anything if you’re sick from bad lifestyle you’re living. Save money so you can get that new camera you always wanted or a new set of really expensive brushes. Invest in those things if you wanna build your brand and grow in your craft.
That’s all. Sea of love, S.
PS. Here are some cool advanced selfies I took in a sunflower field the other day. Hope you guys are gonna like them.
