Inspiration | Looking Ahead

The holidays have made my life crazy.  I left Oklahoma to attend Lara Casey’s Making Things Happen intensive in Watercolor, FL and then the following day I flew to Minneapolis to visit my family.  I was asked to photograph a last minute wedding and then drove back home to Oklahoma.  We were there for a day and a half and then we got back into the car to drive to Denver, CO for some skiing and snowboarding.  Then we have to drive back to Oklahoma and pack for ASBC training in Montgomery, AL for six weeks starting January 11.  Let me just say that life is crazy!!  Personally and professionally I have been challenged and I am exhausted!

I wanted to prepare a post to reflect back on 2009 and to share my vision about where I want to go in 2010.  I have done a lot of thinking and writing after the intensive in Watercolor.  I still don’t feel like I have totally grasped myself and my business and where I want it to be in 2010.  Let me just say it is hard, but I am making progress.  As far as Lara’s workshop it allowed me to dig deeper than I have been and find out what is real, authentic, and raw about myself!  It was hard to be so transparent with other colleagues in the room.  I need to be accountable for what I do or don’t do to make myself and my business great!  I have to admit that lately my biggest excuse for not focusing on my business goals for 2010 and sharing them is because I have been putting more time into my family.  I actually think that is a good excuse, but what I am bad at is managing my time between both my family and business.  That is one thing that I will be working to improve in 2010.

While I was snowboarding today I was think about how many times I had fallen.  It wasn’t very many and I thought well that might mean I am getting better at snowboarding.  But then I was brought back to Watercolor and what Jeff Holt said about falling.  “Attack your fears and fall often.” I have been so comfortable snowboarding, but maybe I haven’t been taking that extra step to make myself BETTER!  I know I haven’t because I just stopped improving myself and not increasing my ability.  I haven’t FALLEN.  Then it all fit together.  If you are not challenging yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, professionally, or emotionally you are not living up to your full potential.  We have to attack our fears and fall in the process and get up and try again.  We always learn in the process and eventually we get there.  My goals for 2010 in my business are to find my fears, attack them, and fall in the process while learning.

So for this first post of 2010 I am going to share some things that inspire me that I want to build my brand and business around.  In following posts I will share images from 2009 that I am proud of and images of other inspiration pieces that reflect where I want my business to be in 2010.  This is my inspiration board.

I ask you to tell me what I do that inspires you.  What have I done that stands out most to you.  I want to emulate the best me that I possibly can and that isn’t always just what I see.  What I see can sometimes be bias.  I am very very excited to share my thoughts about where I want Amy Rae Photography to go.  I will soon reveal more about my goals, inspirations, and reflect back on a great year I had.  I am very thankful and blessed to be involved in an amazing industry and touches so many peoples lives.