Why is finding your voice so challenging?
Why is finding your voice so challenging? After all, it's your voice; shouldn't it come naturally? Shouldn't it just be there, present? After all, it has been with us all along.Finding your voice is about discovering what you want to say and how you want to express it - a style of storytelling, a narrative structure, an aesthetic that complements our personality. Finding your voice is expressing yourself and how you see the world through a medium of your choosing. For me, that medium is writing and photography. So, why is it so difficult to find something that is inside us? To put it bluntly, it's like gazing at ourselves in the mirror.
There is no quick road to what we deem success.
We hopelessly wish for a shortcut, the quick path, instant gratification. To obtain the gratification of accomplishment fame and fortune. In reality, it is the mundane, the monotonous daily grind that leads us to success. I believe that outside of the limelight all great human beings have a simple but effective system that accumulated into their accomplishments. A system the mainstream contuses ignores because it isn't exciting or flashy. There is no excitement, story or obstacle to overcome in these basic systems for success. Just get up, sit down and do the work. Read, train, take notes, and improve, little by little. This method I believe this to be effective. But sadly would never be made into a movie because it's just that, monotonous and boring. The road to success is so simple we can't believe it to be true. We wish there was something unattainable to achieve success. So we can at the very least avoid blaming ourselves for not doing so in our lives.When it comes to obtaining our goals and ambitions. It is imperative that we have a daily routine or an established system that removes all obstacles and aspects of distraction. A system so simple we dare not believe that is all it takes to reach nirvana.
What defines this culture of toxic productivity?
What is this toxic productivity culture? Why is it bad for someone to want to improve themselves? Get better at time management or have control over their days and intern their lives? There is an invisible line that we can cross here. And everyone's line is different to an extent. Here I will outline what turns self-improvement, productivity or systems into toxic productivity.
What is wrong with living a life of mundanity?
What is wrong with living a life of mundanity? Why always strive to make a difference, to create, to have a legacy? Why do we believe that we must be more than what we are? Why do we subconsciously strive to live past our own lifespan? Is it possible to accept our average life like an ant in a colony, a bee in a hive? We are just a tiny aspect. So why do we feel shame and guilt when we just live; and experience, void of productivity?
Buy the camera you'll use, not the camera you want.
I see too many photographers worry about their gear over capturing the image. As photographers we love gear, we love buying it, talking about it, reading about it and writing about it. Owning, researching and showcasing photography gear in itself is a hobby. I've met so many photographers with far better and newer gear than me. Amateurs normally have better gear than me. But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not afraid to use it, and sacrifice my camera if I must for that perfect shot.
How reading books made me a better photographer
Over the past year, I fell away from photography, I did it for a job daily. When it came to my personal work I completely stopped. I no longer cared about a camera on my person when I walked out the front door. I stopped reading books and stopped working out. I did my job and went home, and my personal drive for development and creativity dried up. It wasn't until I started reading books again that something changed.
Time doesn't exist
Our world is run on a clock, be it the time we get up too and go to work, to the dates of events like our birthday or celebration, to the sessions of our crops and weather conditions. I would say these events are just that events and only we put a measurement on them that is dictated by where we are rotating around the sun, and spinning on this rock. Nothing more than our attempt at controlling something that doesn't exist in the first place. There is only entropy, that shows time passing. No causation no passing of time
The dangers of aspiring to be a perfect person
Be it a healthy person regarding fitness, eating habits. Being it a time-efficient hustler, and productive person. Or be it minimalist, aspiring to consume less and aspire to have only long-lasting high-quality items. To the spiritual or person of faith that preaches their belief without request. There is something about these people that isn't quite right. Something about somebody that labels themselves as (insert aspiration here), that rubs me the wrong way and that is they are generally speaking assholes.
Walking to work
After dealing with a period of depression I decided to go back to my roots and the way things were. And one of the transitions was walking to work again in the morning. Now walking to work is a privilege I know this. At the same time, it is tremendously time-consuming. I lose about two hours of my day walking, where I could save that by driving to work or taking public transport. But the time vs cost against reward is so worth it and where is what I get out by adding 2 hours of me to my commute.
Photography is selling us a lie
When it comes to what photography is predominantly used for in our society, documentation; or to put it simply to sell us a feeling or product. An extraordinary amount of advertisements focus on three emotional components to manipulate us. This idea is that whatever they are selling will bring us happiness, love, status or luxury. But advertisements wouldn’t work well if they focused on what we really need. Is advertisement or our focus photography selling us a lie?
Needless consumption
Maybe you have heard of these words going around. Needless consumption, endless consumption, responsible consumption, zero waste, eco friendly, sustainability, green, recycled, materialistic lifestyle or minimalism. In short, these are the current marketing buzzwords targeting environmental impacts. Or words that make us feel good when a company says their products are sustainable, recycled or whatever bull-shit they are using to make you buy their products.Needless consumption or a consumer's morels are constructed on not valuing a person on 1. How they care. 2. Their creativity. 3. Or the strength of their community. Instead, we value ourselves on how many commodities we have. This also pushes us away from ethical questions on how those commodities are made or the well being they have on communities. The number one priority of a company is to make more profit.
What would happen if my home burnt down
Recently I was talking to my wife about what would happen if our home burnt down. And reflecting on this. The only thing that I would be worried about is losing all my hard drives filled with photographs of our memories. Everything else I couldn't care about. Like if our home burnt down, I wouldn't be sad or angry, I'd just be annoyed that I needed to call the insurance company and do all that paperwork. I literally have no attachments to the thing in our home. And my wife said, "I wouldn't call that a flex, like that's sad." But in my mind it isn't and here is why.
Compassion
Compassion is accepting, accepting that someone is not ready, because they are dealing with something, and they are not willing to learn or hear. Wisdom can only be transferred when the student is ready to listen. Compassion is seeing the potential and being willing to wait for them.The dictionary definition for Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate that suffering. I feel that compassion is a bit more than that. A willing to wait, to see through someone else eyes. And to accept where someone is in life be it mentally or emotionally.
How does one take care of themselves so you last?
Isn't it crazy how easy and simple it is to take care of yourself? But for some reason, we don't do it, mainly because we think it is hard and that well-doing these things aren't entertaining or rewarding enough for the amount of energy it requires to form it into a good habit.
Your thoughts and beliefs aren't real
Purpose, meaning, spirituality, religion, motivation, goals, dreams, aspirations. If you really think about it are all fabrications. Man-made, and predominantly in your head, things not of the physical world. I would say that anything your mind can think up isn't real. Go with me on this.
How I live with enlightenment
It's funny how we all live with aspirations and dreams. Dreams of becoming someone or owning something important. With these thoughts in mind, I dare you to go down the path of enlightenment and see what those thoughts become. Are they real, will they still be important? Or will they change?
Inconsistency is ruining your life
Inconsistency is the opposite of habit. Inconsistency is where you have too many variance or contradictions in what you are currently doing. An example talked to death is a diet plan. You do it for a little while, week, month, then oh my god, who would have thought that you would get back to your original weight after you stopped? Shock horror?! Being inconsistent with your days, your weeks, months and years is a great way of going nowhere. Rather than the contradiction about altering nothing, it's when you keep changing what you are doing that you end up nowhere.
Mastering the Mind, Overcoming the Challenges of Modern Comfort
We have got to a time in our history that physical comforts, food and leisure are all accessible. We have more than enough to survive. The next obstacle to master and take control of is our minds. Since we have everything we need to survive, we have time to become bored. This is not how humans are supposed to live, we need problems, we need challenges, we need to consume, battle, create and explore. But when everything can be served to you on a silver platter, for a green piece of paper with a number and someone's face on it, we no longer have those challenges we evolved for.
There is no God, life is meaningless, now what?
Have you ever experience existential dread? You know when you question if your life has any meaning, purpose or value? The answer it an Existentialist like myself is your life is insignificant. Knowing that you're here because of share good luck, and a chain of events outside of your control is, to me at least true freedom. Let me explain.
The four agreements
Ever thought about what makes you a good person? What makes you fare and judge. These four agreements do just that. Not in the eyes of others but to yourself. Only we can live our lives and live it true to ourselves. If someones say something is wrong, or not allowed, it's not because it is true but because that goes against the rules they themselves asset upon themselves. So ask yourself that is it that makes you good?