A question…if you had a friend that spoke to you the way you speak to yourself, would they still be your friend?

I hope the answer is yes.

But I know for some of you the answer is going to be a big, resounding NO!

It wasn’t too long ago that a good part of my internal dialogue was focused on letting myself know exactly where I fell short, why I wasn’t good enough, how I wasn’t learning fast enough, growing quickly enough or feeling confident enough.

TIP – nothing will rob your confidence faster than internal chatter about your ‘short-comings’…which, by the way, are nothing more than areas in which you are yet to grow into.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

We are in an industry that pays a LOT of attention to itself.

I mean…right now, how many other photography-related pages come flying through your newstream?

It’s easy to forget that everyone is on a different leg of their journey.

And it’s easy to discount how far you have come by focusing ONLY on how much further you want to go.

This week, some of our online classes began and it is SOOO fun to watch the students dive in and learn new things.

But I want to remind them – and everyone – that when learning new things, it takes time.

Don’t get frustrated.

And celebrate YOUR growth (even if it looks different than someone else’s “growth”)

I was recently going through some old hard drives, and I came across this image of my son.

When I took it, I thought, “I’ll never be good enough” (even though I was brand-spankin’ new to photography….and even though it was 100 times better than any photo I had taken before).

I’m so happy I didn’t delete it. Not only is it a treasure of my wee babe who has grown up WAAY too fast, but it’s a reminder to be kind to myself and to stop expecting perfection when really the goal is GROWTH.

So…now that you’ve had some time to think about it, would you be friends with yourself?

Pay attention to your internal dialogue this week.

If you are in the sharing mood, share in the comments below if this resonates with you!

(and if you haven’t been kind to yourself, make a commitment to start being your BEST friend..one that makes you smile inside like this!)

 

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