Hitting the Reset Button
Another new year has begun and strangely enough, this January (as well as many January’s in the past) I feel very uninspired and unmotivated to be creative. It might be a seasonal depression situation or maybe it’s just this slow month. I’ve always found January to drag compared to other months. Nothing exciting usually happens, hell, I’d say it’s known for bad movies to come out. Still, living in Texas and wanting to go out and shoot isn’t always the best either - colors consist of browns and yellows all around, which then feeds into my longing to find inspiration. My first instinct is to go travel elsewhere, however, this is difficult due to the side job I picked up in the fall.
So, what now? It’s been a few months since my last entry and I don’t have much to show for it. Not too many photos posted online, lots of things to check off my list and feeling so overwhelmed that I choose to scroll on Instagram or TikTok (what an awful habit that’s become). In the year that a lot is supposed to be going on, full of activities and new adventures, how the hell do I overcome this?
I suppose, doing this. Just sitting down with a cup of coffee to my left, phone left in the other room to charge, and just write about what’s on my mind. This blog post isn’t very constructive, but the only thing that I’ve found that works is to just do the thing. It’s weird to say that after talking about how uninspired I am and that I really despise this month, but I’m trying the method of just sitting down and doing something. Even if this doesn’t get published online, I am fulfilling my creative need somehow. Below I would like to list a couple goals I have for the next coming months. Let’s say, this first quarter of the year.
The first and most important step I have to take is finally starting up my photography business. Taking portraits, on set photographer, shooting promotional material, etc. I would also love to get back into prints once again, though, maybe leaving them at a limited run every month maybe. I still have to figure that out. The next step is learning more about how to advertise myself online. This goes hand in hand with starting up my business, but in a lot of ways it feels like it’s own category. It’s awfully boring and time consuming, but I know it’ll help out in the future. I would also love to share my experiences by blogging more. I used to be really into these long Instagram posts and I would also blog occasionally on my website. Perhaps I should be posting shorter versions or an excerpt from the blog post to bring more traffic to my website.
These are the three things that have been circling my brain for a bit now, and though there is another part of my brain that is telling me that I cannot do it, or it wont be any good, maybe it’s best to look at this year as hitting a reset button and just do it. To not care what anyone else thinks and just go for it. I’m not sure what I’m afraid of or why I’ve decided to hide back in my shell. Maybe I’m just not confident in my writing. Fair enough, too, I haven’t done this in some time with the exception of my personal journal. I feel like this is a direction I should be heading, with some slight nudges from a friend who has gifted me some creative writing journals and my girlfriend who keeps reminding me to “just do the thing”.
There have been some journey’s that I’ve been on that I should share, some adventures that have yet to happen. It’s sad that I haven’t taken time to sit down and write about them, to express myself outside of photography. There’s no point dwelling on it, but it is something that I want to do better with. Hell, this whole post may make zero sense to someone who came across it, but maybe it’ll be relatable to someone else. All I know is moving forward to try to better myself everyday and do something that ignites a fire for my passions. I would love to live a life full of passion and creativity. That’s kind of the whole point of what we all do. Despite the boring nine to five jobs (which I thought I escaped nearly a year ago but hey, gotta pay the bills), and the dullness that is the month of January, I’m going to do what I can to hit a reset on that mentality and focus on what makes me happy.
Hit that reset button and just do the thing.