A Conversation with my Inner Critic

I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. Overwhelmed not only by what needs to be done, but by the competing theories and messages in my head regarding creativity, and my place as a professional.

New Photo – Lightning in the Superstition Mountains

Celtic culture defines Thin Places as places where the distance from an individual to heaven is “thin”; within arm’s reach even.  The Superstition Mountains are one of my “Thin Places”. The Superstition Mountains during a monsoon storm are almost magical to me. I love getting out early and watching the storms develop and roll in over the mountains. I was able to capture this lightning in the Superstition Mountains last week during one of our monsoon storms. I love the way that the lightning illuminates the canyons and reveals the complexities of the mountain. It’s still early in the season, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the season has in store!

Greatness can not be Forced or Imposed

Greatness is not something that can be forced or imposed. It manifests itself only after it’s been found and nurtured.

Morning Ritual – “Who I am” and “What I…

Every morning when I wake up, I have this hope, this sense, that I’m going to spend my day doing things that will make the biggest impact. Almost every night, I go to bed promising myself I’ll do better at it tomorrow, because I wasn’t very good at it that day. I spend my day existing and getting to lists instead of doing tasks with purpose. A new morning ritual has helped me with this subtle feeling of regret that I didn’t live to the measure of my creation that day.

The Illusion of Comfort and Security

While comfort and security are worthy goals and an import aspect to life – pursuing them as your main goals comes at the expense of growth. The illusion of comfort and security hamper positive change. Growth and change are not comfortable. They are also important, necessary parts of life. Pursuing comfort and security as end goals, in an effort to eliminate risk and discomfort, comes at the expense of growing and changing.

The False Allure of Doing Nothing

There is a certain false allure of doing nothing. We give “nothing” a lot of different names- relaxing, chilling, vegging, Netflix, etc. While there is validity to having downtime, we attach a false & inflated value to doing nothing; like it should be the end-all goal of everything we do. We work hard to retire, so that we can do what? Put our feet up?

A Great Lesson Learned

This past week I had the opportunity to go on a photo walk in downtown Los Angeles with Chris Orwig. If you’re not familiar with Chris, he is a fantastic photographer, and an even better person. He’s given TED talks, teaches photography , and has written a few books. The most recent, The Creative Fight, is very good. If you know Chris, you know he’s talented, hard working, and sincere.

Availability Heuristics

The theme of availability heuristics has been coming up over and over again over the past few weeks for me. An availability heuristic relies on what we know to make a judgement.  We tend to rely on what we know, and what’s easily and readily available.

Shoot What it Feels Like

“Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.” – David Alan Harvey

Falling Stars and Dreams

I was having a hard time the other night, so I went outside and looked at the night sky. I looked up and asked for a falling star, just one, to let me know that somebody was there. All I wanted was one simple falling star. In a night, a month, a year, a lifetime full of falling stars, just one at that moment to let me know that I wasn’t just talking to the air, that I wasn’t just just talking to the sky.

I didn’t see one.