Defining success
Success. This is a big word that we sometimes allow to define so much of who we are and what we do. In our industry, we look to who is speaking at WPPI,
who is shooting whose wedding, who is doing this or that. We look to those people to define success in our own minds. We want to be like them because they are successful—right? The same goes for society at large. What neighborhood do you live in, what kind of home or car do you have, do you get to travel, where do you work, etc.? Social media has made the magnitude of this phenomenon so much bigger. On our news feeds in the morning, we catch up with what everyone else is doing and what everyone else is being successful at. The idea of success glares at us daily on our phones, tablets and computers, and it is harder than ever to disconnect and be content with where we’re at in life.
Our society and our industry have notions of success that can drive us to move forward and that can also break us down. Or, worse, it can drive us to really lose track of what is important in the first place. It is so hard not to compare work, scour blogs, walk the trade-show floors, and want everything, or go hear people speak and compare everything everyone else does to what you do. It’s toxic not only to our industry, but also to you and your loved ones.
