Many times while watching sporting events you will see a contestant seemingly perform beyond the possible. You see performances like this in every field of endeavor, including the arts and business. Why does a young photographer achieve so much in so short a time? But that's not the real question.
The real question you should be asking is, why aren't I? What are you doing to hold yourself back? Can you recognize whatever it is and do something about it?
Most all the time, it's not physical ability or lack of the best equipment, holding you back, it's how you frame yourself. This is the real handicap and, if you look deep within yourself, honestly, you will realize you are what is holding you back.
First of all, you will have to understand, if you think you can perform at a higher level or you think you can't, you are right. That's important. It's too easy to create excuses and all too common and it's the easy way out. If you believe your lack of professional quality equipment is holding you back, then you will forever be in a loop of saving to buy the "next" camera, lens or accessory. If you believe you don't have the talent; you are correct; you don't. And you won't until you get up off your butt and try.
No photographer was born with a camera in hand. No photographer grew up with client contacts or photographic abilities. These are all accumulated by hard work, effort and will.
Making excuses is cheating; cheating yourself out of furthering your creativity and ability. No one feels more sorry for you than you and, as long as you perceive yourself as not being able, you never will.
Another excuse you may have is in thinking about possible outcomes. By seeing the end result, before you ever attempt anything, is a sure way to hold yourself in place. After all, if you already know how the client negotiation is going to turn out, why try and get a meeting in the first place?
Think of a food you can't eat under any circumstances; maybe it's raw tomatoes. If offered a tomato, you would naturally refuse. In fact, there is no circumstance where you can see yourself eating a tomato. So, when offered, you would say, "I don't eat tomatoes." Likewise, don't do outcomes. When you hear yourself playing possible negotiation scenarios (all of which fail), tell yourself, "I don't do outcomes."
Somewhere along the line, you have to be willing to work for success. How bad do you want to be successful?
Once there was a photographer who asked his best friend, a top salesperson, how he, too, could learn to be successful. The friend told the photographer to go way out of town, past the Jones farm and take the next left. There he would come to a nice single-family home. Knock on the door and ask for Walter.
The photographer drove out of town, past the Jones farm and took the next left, as he had been told. There, he found the house his friend had mentioned and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He knocked three more times, but still no one answered.
As he started to walk back to his car, he noticed a pond a few hundred feet away and an old man sitting next to it with a fishing pole. The photographer walked over to the pond and said he was looking for Walter. "I'm Walter,” the old man said. “What can I do for you?"
"My friend said you could tell me how I could become successful."
"Kneel down by the edge of the pond," Walter said.
"What for?" the photographer asked.
"Just do as I say, if you want me to tell you how to be successful," the old man said.
The young photographer kneeled by the edge of the pond and immediately, Walter pushed him, face down, into the water and held his head. The more the photographer struggled, the more force Walter used to keep the photographer under. When he felt he could no longer hold his breath and drowning was imminent, the old man grabbed the photographer and threw him out of the pond.
After a few minutes of gasping for air, the photographer said, "What did you do that for? I only asked you a question."
"When you want success as much as you wanted the next breath of air, you'll have it."
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