Stop Hating on Other Photographers & Start Being Self-Centered

Last week, I sat at Starbucks in Kihei, Maui with my friend Naomi Levit and for two hours we moaned and complained about all of the mental problems that come with the territory of being a photographer. Both of us have been working on our business for a couple years now and we're both feeling dragged down by self-doubt, jealousy of other photographers who seem like they've got it all together, bitterness at photographers who haven't treated us so nicely, constant stress over our logo and website designs, blah blah blah. The cycle of negativity never stops. After hours of spilling our guts, we were feelin' downer than when we started. 

We hopped in our cars and drove down the town to the Thai food restaurant. As we sat outside waiting for our takeout order to be prepared, our conversation switched direction. We realized that sometime the complaining is a healthy exercise, purging all that crap from our systems BUT afterwards, you've got to lace up your boots and start running towards exciting things again. 

You've got to look at your goals, your fun projects, what awesome things you can contribute. The more you focus on yourself and what you're doing, the less time & energy you have left over to focus on other photographers. By the end of the night, we were both pumped up and feeling empowered. We couldn't care less what other photographers were doing because we had our own stuff going' on. When you find yourself in the nasty cycle of comparison & judgement, try redirecting that energy, be totally self-centered for a moment and start planning your own awesome adventures!!

When I got home, I recorded a little video explaining everything that was running through my head. (What an attractive screen shot, not! haha)

What do you think? How do you deal with all those nasty feelings?