If you want to find a level of deep contentment, or some kind of new happiness in your life, then finding a creative outlet can help with that. I’ve met quite a few people on my workshops and tours over the years that came to photography at very different times in their lives, and it has given them so much joy and contentment.

“comparison is the thief of joy”

I have also, met one or two whom after a few years got very frustrated with their work output and gave up doing it. I know how this can happen because it happened to me when I was a keen musician. I stopped enjoying what I did, because rather than just enjoy the moment, I had gotten so ambitious that I was always feeling disappointed with my music output when I compared it to the pro’s work.

Comparison as they say, is the thief of joy.

I try to remind myself all the time, why I am in this. I have periods where I don’t create work that I’m all that content with, but I have learned that progress is never linear, and sometimes I have to get through the bad stuff to reach the good stuff. Or as a colleague of mine once said “you have to take the rough with the smooth”, or to put it another way “you have to have the downs so as to notice the ups”.

Which reminds me of a conversation on one of my tours when my good friend John asked a Belgium client “do you have any hills and valleys in Belgium?” to which they replied “no valleys, just hills”.

“always be kind to yourself, and your mistakes”

Joking aside, if you’re going to get involved in the creative arts (and I do consider photography to be one of them) you have to maybe enter into it with one simple golden rule, and remind yourself of it all the time. And it is this: “always be kind to yourself, and your mistakes”.

If you’re a high achiever, you’ll most likely struggle with that. High achievers tend to rarely be happy with where they are, and tend to constantly be chasing rainbows. This is not to say this is an invalid way to work. There are many areas of industry for example where having the drive to push oneself further is needed. Outliers are outliers because they cross boundaries.

With the creative arts, I do not think this works. “Striving” or “Pushing” your work doesn’t work. I have often felt that with any creative outlet, it is more about learning to let go, and to let things unfold in their own way. Often I have thought that the best work tends to create itself. Call it ‘positive flow’. Many famous songs for instance “seem to write themselves” when the songwriter is asked how they were written. I think in these cases, the songwriter has stumbled upon a good idea, and rather than try to control it, has just let go and gone with where his intuition wants to take him.

So I think that there are really perhaps three golden rules to keep by your side, as you wander through your creative life with your camera. And they are:

Be kind to yourself
Be kind to your creativity
Practice gratitude for what photography has given you

Whether it is in finding friends, gaining experiences, or simply visiting beautiful places, your camera has opened up life for you in ways that you may not have realised.

I think practicing this simple three-step process of gratitude on a regular basis, or at the very least, being aware of it, is very worth doing.