The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go.
If you’re going to hunt elephants, don’t get off the trail for a rabbit.
T. Boone Pickens
Welcome to one of my most favorite quotes and it’s incredibly accurate. Think about it for just a second…haven’t you found the longer you’re a photographer and the more you do to raise the bar on your skill set, the better it gets? With each new task, you accomplish you become more focused on the direction you want to take in your career, even it’s only short range and just the day ahead.
The challenge is the ability for many of us to not to be distracted by things that don’t matter. It’s not just the trolls in our life who distract us, but often situations that take up time but have no real significance.
Here’s a classic example…
There’s a lot of great information being shared in a number of different photography forums, especially on Facebook. It typically starts with an innocent question somebody has about a technique or procedural challenge of being a professional photographer. Every now and then, somebody writes something that somebody doesn’t like and the next thing to happen is a global sh** storm over semantics. (Apologies for the modified S-word – but there really isn’t a better description!) Everybody has to get in on the act and eventually an administrator has to delete the thread and often throw the most abusive parties out of the group. It becomes a complete waste of time.
Time, not money or even your skill set, is your most important commodity. You can never get it back when it’s wasted so why let yourself get off the trail to hunt a rabbit!?
