Recently I was very excited to start an online photography course. It’s been great to see my photographs slowly progressing towards more professional looking images. There is a support group on Facebook for students to share their work and offer and receive support. There is just one problem.
Every day I have these magnificent images popping up in my newsfeed. They make me go “wow!” But they also make me go “I’ll never be good enough”. “I can’t do that”. “I don’t have enough talent”. “No-one notices what I do”. “Why can’t I be that good?”
Sound familiar?
But here’s the deal: The journey is as much about the journey as the destination. We may look back and shudder at our first attempts, but didn’t the professionals start out the same way? Even talents have to be developed through practice and learning.
What is “good enough” anyway? Where are the “good enough” police? In my head? Hmmm.
How about we change that “I’m never be good enough” to “I’ll do my best and see what happens”. Or perhaps “I’ll do this because I genuinely enjoy the experience and I don’t need the appraisal of anyone to validate that”. Yeh, that sounds better.
I’ll leave you with a final thought.
If you never start something, you will never finish anything.
Thanks for the long comment Sue, and yes, I know what you mean 🙂
Thank you for your encouragement too.
I love your line about never getting to the end of learning, it is so true and also necessary, who wants to stop and stagnate?
Chel, that's great news that you will be getting a DSLR camera, they really are fantastic!
Kelly,
I've been thinking a lot about this topic recently. I wonder if, when we don't get the reactions we hope for, our work is still okay. Sometimes it may be a matter of timing. Think of all the artists in history whose work wasn't appreciated until after their death. Not that I want to die before I'm successful! Or maybe public opinion isn't that important. We can create things we know will be received well. Create for the market, maybe. This type of creation doesn't necessarily need to be of high quality, just popular. Or we can create staying true to ourselves and not worry about others' reactions. Hard to put all that into words. I hope you know what I mean!
I think you are so right about creating being a journey. Yes, sometimes we can see we need to improve a great deal. Other times we feel satisfied. But when we look back, we can also see how we could improve even those things we were happy with. We never seem to get to the end of learning and improving which can be very exciting!
btw, whenever I see your photos in my FB feed I think, "Wow!" I do love sharing the journey with you. It's encouraging to learn with other people alongside.
Better finish before I write a blog post in your com-box!
Kelly, I was thinking the exact same thing today after seeing some gorgeous projects on Pinterest and am thinking on doing a blog post about the issue.
Now, if you took those photos they are just great. I have booked into an online photography course but first have to wait for my brother to give me his DSLR camera which he bought but never uses. Hope he doesn't wait too long 🙂