Making YOURSELF Proud… Are ARE important!

• March 4th, 2014 •

Copyright © Devon Shanor Photography | All rights reserved

In high school I had a friend who is now a very well known Hollywood actress. I was recently thinking about her as she isn’t in the tabloids and news as much as she used to be. She is still acting, but seems to have pulled away from the limelight a bit. As we aren’t friends anymore, I have no idea if this is her choice or not but I was thinking about her and how this “lessening of exposure” might be affecting her. Does she resent it? Enjoy it? Seek it out herself? Miss it?

She has a beautiful child and seems to be a great mom. She is still working… Broadway, fashion and directing. In her hometown, I am sure lots of people are talking about her. But on a national scale, she seems to have “disappeared.”

It got me to thinking how it impacts us when we no longer feel “relevant to others.” How do we react when it seems at one time “everyone knew about us” and now, they apparently don’t. Do WE resent it? Enjoy it? Seek it out? Miss it? Life is a big roller coaster. Sometimes lots of people are talking about you, other times, we can feel like no one cares.

It also got me thinking about my life… my business. How things have changed so much! At one time, my husband and I were pretty big leaders in our church: leading small groups, running ministries, volunteering at every event. Then, my marriage went through some pretty tough times and we pulled away from leadership to focus on fixing our marriage. It’s hard taking a “step down” in any leadership capacity. It was difficult for me to go from “being on top” to merely surviving. I used to be the one people called when they needed help because I gave such a great advice and support. Then I became the one who was calling others because I couldn’t figure out my own life.

And then my business: going from no one knows me at all, to feeling like everyone knows me; from one month of the phone ringing off the hook, to a few months later of the phone never ringing; from one client LOVING their portraits so much they are moved to tears, to the next client not giving me any feedback at all; to a potential client booking a session without even talking to me, to another saying my work isn’t worth the investment.

Life is a roller coaster! It can change from one minute to the next…one moment you can feel on top of the world, the next at the bottom of the barrel.

Lately, I have been trying to quit morphing myself into “relevant and important” and making “the world” proud. Really, my goal in life is to make God, my family and myself proud. Of course, I LOVE recognition and praise from anyone, but it shouldn’t be my goal.

I posted this last week on Facebook:

“Just because you aren’t relevant or “important” to others… doesn’t mean you aren’t relevant or important. Quit worrying so much what others think of you or who is “talking” about you. Be you and follow your dreams and passions. Love those in your life and make YOURSELF proud.”

I hope you take something from that. I know I am not the only one who struggles with feeling important. I believe that most people want to be recognized positively for the work they do. It isn’t bad to want recognition… it’s only bad if that is your only motivation!

I LOVE my job. I love capturing amazing moments and the love between people! I love when YOU, my clients, love what I create for you. But my motivation for all I do is to make my family and myself proud and to provide for family. So if the phone doesn’t ring as much, the friends you refer don’t call or book with me, or other photographers have more FB “likes” than me… I will not to be upset and I’ll let it “roll of my shoulders.”

I will remember that there are LOTS of happy clients out there. I will remember that my proud daughter took my Village News Ad to school to show her friends: “Look! My mom is in a MAGAZINE!” I will remember that four years ago, I had 22 FB likes, one camera and lens, and NO IDEA what to do to start this business. I will remember how far I have come and how my “little business” has allowed my family to survive when my husband lost his job and went to school full-time to change career paths.

Life is a journey. And it’s YOUR journey… YOUR story. Sometimes you have lots of supporters and cheerleaders. Other times you don’t. Don’t ever let that stop your momentum because the next rise, the next “winning moment” could be just around the bend!

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