Photography, Business, Life and a New Year

My most favorite sunset shot from 2017 captured with a LUMIX FZ300 - f2.8 @ 1/80 ISO 125

It's the first Sunday Morning Reflections of the new year. I spent part of the early morning hours lying in bed trying to think of a topic. This is a tough time of year for significant epiphanies since it's during what I think of as a flatline week. Think about it:

December is a flurry of activity for just about everybody. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, it's the busiest time of year on both a business and personal level. The year comes to a close, and there's nothing you can do to slow things down. New Year's Eve arrives, you celebrate, eat and maybe drink a little too much - take the next day to recover and then *POOF* it's a new year. You're expected to be even more excited about a fresh start and clean slate than you were just 24 hours earlier!

Then, to add to the pressure of wrapping up last year and kicking off this year, everyone makes a few new year's resolutions. Usually, they're things you should have been doing all along, but somehow we think because it's a new year, old habits will simply die and be replaced by new ones because we've willed them to be! 

Here's my point for this morning: I didn't make any resolutions for the new year, but I do have a few things I'm hoping I can do along with all of you.

• Let's make this a year where we do a better job of staying in touch. I shared a post last week about using the phone more and email/texting less. 
• Remember the quote by Richard Carlson: "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and it's all small stuff." From comments on Facebook to the rumor mill we get too absorbed in things that just don't matter. Many of you need to do a better job of remembering my old buddy Dean Collins' line, "Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder!" Stop worrying about what somebody wrote in a Facebook forum about an image you shared!
• Let's take better care of ourselves! Sheila and I started walking every morning back in June. Then a month ago we started dieting - nothing outrageous, just trying to eat healthier, lose a little weight and feel better - and it's working. I'm sleeping better, have more energy during the day, and I'm getting more things done.
• Forgive more and be angry less. This is the toughest one of all, and I'm work in progress. Sheila got me reading Marianne Williamson more often, and I read something this week that stayed with me. I'm paraphrasing, but you'll hopefully get the point. "...If I believe in the reality of what "you did to me," I will feel as though the consequences of what you did to me are real...To the extent that I withdraw my attachment of what you did, I will no longer be affected by what you did."
• And last on this short list is have fun! Remember "fun?" It's one of those words lost in business today because we get wrapped up in taking life too seriously. Having fun means appreciating what you've got. It doesn't mean you can be irresponsible, get paid for mediocre work or procrastinate - just that we all need to take the time now and then to hit the brakes - slow down, hug somebody special in your life and appreciate everything you're working so hard to build!

There they are, five pseudo resolutions, and all things we should have been doing all along. Nothing earth-shaking, but if I've learned nothing else as I've gotten older it's that life is too short to not enjoy it to the max. This new year has started off with some pretty amazing projects and old friends coming back into my life. I'm not going to waste a minute and neither should you!

Make it a day of chuckles and pat yourself on the back for a year in business that's been added to your foundation as a photographer, business owner or just part of the human race! Wishing you a day of peace and appreciation for everybody around you.

​I'm staying with those eleven-second hugs, and for those just getting to know me - I read an article a couple of years ago about longer hugs having therapeutic value. If you don't believe me, give it a try. What have you got to lose?

Happy Sunday everybody!