You're not working that hard

If you have time to complain about how hard you’re working, you’re probably at around 60% of your capacity. I say this as someone who used to complain a lot. I still do, but not like when I first started photography, as I figured out what I wanted from my work. I learnt to put in hours of practice, and whilst I enjoyed a lot of it, when it got tough, I had to get more focused to get it done. The reward was the work and getting to show clients, and I’ve written this because there is an attitude from people in the middle that they’re working hard. You don’t hear such comments from the people at the top or how hard they work; they do it.

I wrote this because lately, I’ve seen many people talk about how much work they’ve put in, and in reality, they’re treating the job like they’ve won a marathon when they’ve just made a 100-metre sprint.

It’s ok to be at the start, but if you’re less than three years in, you’ve still got a long way to go! I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve written this as a reminder.

You aren’t working that hard:

• If you complain that people don’t see as a professional

• If you’re six months in and whining about the effort

• If you’re only doing it when it’s convenient

• If your work isn’t evolving

• If you think that improving involves buying more gear

• If you aren’t researching

• If you aren’t setting goals

• You’re treating this like a short sprint

• If you think six months is a long time

• If you believe one shoot a week is a lot of work

You’re working hard

• If you’re full of self-doubt

• If you don’t know if you can do it

• You’re on day 200, shoot 55, and you hate everything

• Every spare moment goes into making things happen

• You spend hours researching, buy magazines, pour-over tutorials to find ways to improve

• Your goals are a stretch for you

Deliberate practice is so important, and I can’t stress this enough. I think there’s this attitude that you can do it if you hustle hard enough, and sure you can get somewhere, but you’ll plateau if you believe your work is already great or you’ve worked hard. A year into any profession, this isn’t that long. Five years, ten years, twenty, and how you see things will be significantly different and far more nuanced. That’s what you should be looking for long term growth, hard work, and finding fulfilment in growing.

Rather than complaining about how people say you’ve great a great camera and that they don’t see you as a professional, do the work, try new things, and stop basing your self worth off other peoples opinions of you; Especially mine.