Achieving Goals

Today has been a great day! So great that I felt the need to document it. Why? Because it was a milestone for me as a photographer. For today, two of my photos have been published in Photoshop User Magazine. For me, the holy grail of all that is cool in my photography world. To have one photo published would have been incredible, but two has my heart singing! My ego is so proud of me. Ha!

There are days when we get to see a culmination of our efforts as a big, shiny, gold star beside our name, you know, like when you knew your colors and numbers in kindergarten. It's just the grown-up version.

Accomplishment feels good, I think, especially good for photographers and creatives. Being a photographer and artist, let me say, first and foremost, that I wholeheartedly describe myself this way. So, trust me when I tell you, most photographers have a huge ego, slathered in insane amounts of self-doubt.

I know! That sounds funny, and it is, but it's also true for lots of us. Why are we like that? Well, I believe it is our nature. As creator-types we must believe in ourselves in order to create. But, also what we do is subjective. It is art, after all.

With every creation, goes a bit of ourselves, on display for the world to love or hate. That is hard to handle sometimes. It is exposing a very fragile part of ourselves, opening it up for evaluation by strangers. You could get sucker-punched in the gut at any time by anyone. Sometimes that huge ego is there for self-preservation, our helmet, shoulder-pads, and cup. I mean, you have to gear up and get ready for feedback and people are downright mean sometimes and they will swing below the belt.

I take every comment personally. I could lie and tell you that I don't, but since I am being straight with you here I'll admit it. And it only takes one --one stupid, measly, insignificant comment to send me spiraling, even if I have a hundred nice comments. Why is that?! I fight with that a lot internally. Why doesn't that lovely feedback stick in my head and replay over and over like that mean one does?

Let me be clear that I am not talking about constructive criticism here. That is a completely different animal. I think feedback from peers and especially mentors can be a huge boon to honing your craft. The comments I am referring to are the ones that really have no merit, no real substance, but still puts you on defense.

The way I deal with it best is to classify that mean commenter as "not my tribe." I tell myself that people who would say such things wouldn't understand my art anyway, and that I certainly wouldn't want my art hanging in their house. I would only want my creations to hang where they would be appreciated.

So, we must take stock in the great days! Be thankful and really take in how good it feels to accomplish a personal goal. Days where all your hard work shows, the harvest of all those seeds you planted, cared for, and watered for so long. The validation that your work is appreciated and enjoyed. With every accomplishment, you gain a newer, better, stronger armor of real self-confidence, not an empty ego version, readied to repel the next insult that might come your way.