Being a professional photographer I am always trying to challenge myself, push myself further than I ever thought possible.
As a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (Aipp for short) something we have every year is state and national awards. The awards push us to think outside of the box search outside our comfort zone when getting images ready for judging.
This is how it works, your print is presented in front of a panel of 5 judges with a live audience its all anonymous they don’t know who the print belongs to. They all give it a score out of 100 and it gets an average of all of these scores, anything 80 or higher gets an award.
So as you can image when that print turns around and its your print sitting up there you can’t help but feel vulnerable, confronted and most of all freaking out!! But then something magical happens they love the print!! They see the story they see the piece for all that it is and give it an award. But on the other hand sometimes your print misses out, you feel defeated and you feel like your work isn’t good enough that your not good enough. But in that same moment thats when you need to feel something else… Achievement.. Know that you’ve pushed yourself to the best of your ability and know that you’ve achieved something, you’ve achieved growth. The chance to learn and grow so that next time your even bigger and better than before.
Putting yourself in a position where you feel vulnerable, challenged and outside your comfort zone is something that I would recommend anyone not only just in business to do but in life. Because if we never feel challenged or pushed outside the box how are we ever expected to create greatness and achieve things you never thought possible?
