It's Monday. But unlike a majority of people I absolutely love Mondays. It is the day that I have designed for myself to set goals for the week and to answer emails or touch base with clients. Mondays I wake up and feel inspired to get to work.
As a self taught photographer I never imagined I would be able to work from home. Are there struggles like any other job? Absolutely, everyday. But I love what I am doing so much that I try really hard not to resist my "growing pains" because I know it's preparing me to be that much better at what I am doing. From an early age I knew that I would one day be self employed, yet I never would have guessed it would be as a photographer. But now that it is happening it makes perfect sense to me.
I love horses, I love fashion, I love being on the road and I love helping people feel good about themselves. A few years ago when I was going through a transition in my life my mom sat me down and made me write a list of what I want, in every area of my life. She asked me to start writing what it was I wanted, but then to take it one step further and describe and be specific about what it looked like. I can honestly look back on those lists and know that I have attracted the perfect job into my life. So if you feel that you are not exactly where you are in life or not doing what you really long to do. Write it down, what does it look like? What steps can you take to get there?
On Mondays I focus on one part of my business that I think I could work on. Sometimes it is far too easy to put things off when you are able to make your own schedule. But I know when I have been slacking because I feel a sense of anxiety. And I know I am the only one responsible for making myself feel that way and that I can simply get to work and it will subside. My close friends know that I also do not text as much as I have in the past. Being self employed means that if you are not spinning your wheels towards productivity you are only hurting yourself. My friends and family are still a very important and vital part of my life. But I find that there are so many hours in the day that you can be distracted by social media or meaningless group texts and I make the conscious choice to focus on my business instead.
On Mondays I try and smile and be grateful for how far I have come. And work on my plans to where I plan to go next. All of my past experiences have lead me to where I feel I am meant to be (so far). I have learned to not let what others think affect me like it once used to. Because I have worked on discovering who I am and I have always been quite good at focusing on a goal and being steadfast in achieving it. I have learned some extremely valuable lessons in the last few years. I've learned about people, about life and about myself. It feels good to be able to process them, break them down, learn what I can and turn around and make them useful to me. I've been learning to accept compliments much more gracefully, and to not let one rude comment diminish the hundreds of amazing things others have taken the time to share with me. I've learned that it is usually when I am most nervous to post a new photo or share a photo shoot that it's going to get the most response. Because if I had let my own insecurities about my art stop me, I never would have posted the photo that was on the cover of the Western Horse Review magazine.
So I hope that if you aren't a fan of Mondays that you choose to make a change. Because I feel it's important to do what you love, and love what you do.