"Directions"
It's been a very contemplative month for me. I've been doing a lot of reading, research, and brainstorming about what I want my photography business to look like, and how I'm going to get there. So far this month, I've read two of Seth Godin's books (The Purple Cow & Lynchpin), I just started Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant's book The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture, and I've read a few other photography-related books I checked out from the library (best.place.ever). I also re-read The Hobbit for the first time since I was about 12 years old (everyone needs a little downtime, right?). Needless to say, I've been making great use of the grey days and gloomy weather.
My friend, Bejay, who is also an entrepreneur, lent me another book this month (which I also devoured) called Double Double by Cameron Herold. In it, there's this concept called a "Painted Picture" where you describe exactly what you want your business and your life to look like 3 years from now. And today, that's what I did - I wrote a "Painted Picture" of my photography business using the goals, dreams, brainstorming, and pieces of research I've been collecting that fit best with who I am and where I want to go in life. A lot of what I've read about creativity and success in sports, business, entrepreneurship, fitness, weight loss, and so on seems to suggest that using visualization and/or goal setting is a really useful tool to help people achieve their goals. I've never been the greatest at visualizing, even though I do work on it from time to time, but I am pretty good about regularly setting and reviewing (and achieving) goals. It helps me stay focused on what I want to do in life. And the great thing about goals is that it's never really too early or too late to set them, because they generally shift and change and evolve as you do. I encourage everyone to give it a try and set at least one SMART goal in their life. Who knows what'll happen? You might even make your own dreams come true.
Below is a snapshot of the "Painted Picture" exercise I wrote today, which is essentially directions written by me for my photography business for the next 3 years. They take into account how I want to get to where I'm going and what paths I'll take to get there. If these aren't directions, then I don't know what is. These are certainly the directions that I have been the most focused on lately, so it felt appropriate to make them my photo of the day.
Monica has an interesting take on the "Directions" theme, so be sure to check her blog out too.
