This is Business

Productivity for Photographers: Morning Routine

"We hit the snooze button and resist the inevitable act of waking up, unaware that our resistance is sending a message to the universe that we’d rather lie there in our beds—unconscious—than consciously and actively live and create the lives we say that we want." - Hal Elrod

What would you do with an extra 2 hours a day?

Two hours a day adds up to 18 workweeks a year.

How would your life - your health, your art, your business, your happiness - be different if someone handed you that kind of time to invest in yourself and your dreams? If your boss said, "Here James Michael, I want to give you the next 18 weeks off so you can make your life awesome - the very best it can be."

Here it is, plain:

You need to go to bed two hours earlier, and get up two hours earlier than you are right now.

(I can hear you screaming "Impossible!" all the way from here in Goldthwaite, Texas.)

To anyone who hasn't experienced it, the differences are profound.

Why are you dedicating your most powerful, focused, productive hours to everything EXCEPT your dream?

When all of your energy goes to rushing and reacting and meeting other people's ever-urgent needs, you have nothing left to invest in changing your life for the better.

I can't tell you how many years I spent staying up late, getting up late, rushing through my morning, resenting my work, being distracted around my family, and letting my dreams slip to "tomorrow" day after day after day. Maybe I'd steal a few hours on the weekend, or holidays. I was always playing catch-up; never satisfied, never feeling like I was where I was supposed to be. Not at work, not at home.

So much stress exists in our lives because we're constantly out of alignment.

When we're at work, we feel like we should be with our family. When we're with our family, we feel like we should be working on our passion project. Then when we finally find or force the time to work on our dreams, we're exhausted, stressed, distracted, even resentful.

With that misalignment constantly grinding against our hearts and heads and spirits, it's no wonder we're stressed out and seeking any distraction we can find.

Facebook. Netflix. Video games.

(All of which can be healthy recreation, so long as your dreams and priorities and life are already well-served.)

By day's end, we're spent.

So we default to the easy and low-yield. A couple hours of Call of Duty or Top Chef while scrolling through an endless sea of social media (scientifically proven to cause depression).

The average American watches five hours of television per day. That same 'average American' plays almost an hour of video games per day.

It's not that these activities are bad - all work and no play makes James Michael a dull boy.

But what if we flipped the script, and you and I spent five or six hours a day working passionately and productively toward our dreams?

Hell, what if we could score just one hour each day to work on our dreams?

Zig Ziglar quotes a study of the typical American factory:

The average factory line worker watched an average of 30 hours of television each week.

The person in charge of the line watched 25 hours.

The foreman watched 20 hours.

The VP watched 12-15 hours.

The president watched 8-12 hours.

The chairman of the board watched an average of 4-8 hours of television each week, with 50 percent of that time spent watching training videos.

The trend is obvious. Some invest their time in distraction, some in growth. That growth leads to success - personal, professional, social, and financial.

Recreation (from the Latin re: "again", and creare: "to create, bring forth" - important to consider) is powerful and necessary. But it should be purposeful, and in service to your dreams first; not in place of the work that makes those dreams come true.

Why practice early rising and a purposeful morning routine?

Because it's "the big secret" to success you've been searching and wishing for.

If your life is rocking, if you feel purposeful and productive and on track, toss my advice like a hot potato: as always, this is your business, your art, your life, and you're in control.

If not, allow me to double-dog-dare you to test this for 30 days and see if your life isn't changed for the better.

What Makes Mornings So Powerful?

"Never forget that who you are becoming is the single most important determining factor in your quality of life, now and for your future." - Hal Elrod

It's not the numbers on the clock that make the difference between early morning and the rest of each day.

It's what is, and isn't, found during those hours.

The early morning hours empower you with:

• TIME: When you shift your sleeping hours ahead by two hours, recognize: you're not losing a minute of sleep, nor a minute of waking hours. You're trading your least energetic, least empowered, unproductive late evening hours for two hours of purposeful, powerful, focused early morning hours. This is the time you've so desperately sought to Do The Work and make your dreams come true.
• ENERGY: I spent most of my life identifying as a "night owl." I loathed mornings. But I can now attribute 100 percent of this to late nights (refusing to give up the computer screen), too little sleep, poor diet, non-existent exercise, the limiting belief that I hated mornings, and having no Next Steps ready so I could go straight from bed to important work. Now that I practice better health habits and a consistent evening routine, my morning hours are by far my most energetic. I often wake with exciting ideas already stirring in my mind, refusing to let me go back to sleep, even if I wanted to. (An awesome problem to have.)
• WILLPOWER: Scientists have solidly determined that your willpower is like a fuel tank, and with every decision or temptation or challenge, your willpower drains throughout the day. That's why it's so hard to do high-yield, challenging (if purposeful) work late in the evening. By the time you're home from your day job, you're spent.
• FOCUS: Every person has the same 24 hours in a day. How come so few get amazing things done, and the rest "never have time" to tend their health, art, or dreams? Essentialism: they focus on high-yield, important, long-game activities. The Important but Not Urgent. With every text message, phone call, e-mail, family request, coworker problem, boss demand, client displeasure, messed up fast food order, second of traffic, doctor appointment, parent-teacher meeting, Facebook notification, trip to the gas pump... Your focus is being stolen. You face more distraction and carry more mental and emotional baggage as the day goes on. Sleep is The Big-Arse Reset Button. Every morning is a fresh start, especially early morning when the rest of the world is still sleeping.
• VICTORY: Rising early is a victory in itself. Everything you get done in your morning hours is a victory. Practicing your morning routine is a victory. Can you honestly say right now that you felt victorious on your drive to work this morning? Odds are you snoozed the alarm, woke late, rushed through the shower and a thoughtless breakfast, then cursed traffic and your job and the universe all the way to your desk. That never feels like victory. But this is exactly how most of us start our days, and live our lives - always behind, always out of alignment, always distracted and disgruntled, never present, never feeling like we're where we should be. When you take back your mornings, it sets the tone (and your attitude, and thus your experience of life) for the rest of the day.
• SOLUTIONS: When you steep your subconscious in your passion work each morning, your mind goes to work on creative ideas and solutions to problems while you go about the rest of your day. This is why your best ideas come to you in the shower, on a run or bike ride, or while doing something completely unrelated to your problem. Prime the pump of your subconscious each morning by spending time working on your dreams.

Your best energy, willpower, and focus are all found in the first hours of the day.

Stop rushing through this time and giving it all away; if you don't choose how you spend your time, someone else will.

Shift your hours to the early morning, get important work done, and leave what's left for everything else in your life.

But What About My Job? My Family? My Friends?

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” - Lao Tzu

If you don't feel like you're kicking arse at your dreams, then I'd bet a dollar to a donut that you aren't kicking arse at your job, or with your family or friends.

I'm not saying you're a bad employee, mom or dad, or friend.

But I'd wager you don't feel like the best employee, parent, or friend you could be.

You have a problem with alignment.

And when your life is out of balance, out of alignment, it's nearly impossible to be present and to know peace. The people you love just want your presence; when you're with them, they want to feel like you're there, and that there's nowhere else you'd rather be.

When you start your day with progress toward your dreams, your heart and mind are opened up to the rest of life. You no longer feel out of place, out of time, disgruntled, distracted, or resentful.

Our day jobs are demanding. Our families are demanding. Our friends are demanding.

Not in a bad, selfish way - just in the attention they all need to feel and be honored.

It's impossible to serve those needs with your best self when you never make the time to serve your own needs. And a big part of your needs as an artist and business owner is doing work in service of your dreams.

There is zero chance you're reading these words right now if becoming a professional photographer is NOT important to you.

You've passed the test.

And now it's time to commit - to yourself, and to your dream.

Why You've Never Succeeded At Rising Early

"We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day." - U.S. Army

I tried a thousand times to become an early riser. I read about the benefits in books and blogs, heard countless examples of the super-successful and their morning routines.

Maybe one out of every four tries, I'd get up with my first alarm.

And every single time, I'd give up the next morning.

Then Michael Hyatt hit me with a baseball bat.

He talked about his Evening Routine.

Not just "go lay in bed and toss and turn until your normal bedtime" horsesh*t, but actual actions you could take and rituals to adopt that made going to bed earlier - and getting up earlier - not just possible, but pleasurable.

Since I started committing to a regular evening routine, no matter how imperfect my practice of it is, I've learned to fall asleep earlier, sleep better, and get up in the morning refreshed and ready to make good (sometimes great) things happen.

Quit trying to "just get up earlier." That's brutality. Sacrificing sleep by just setting your alarm two hours earlier and doing none of the other things you need to support that early morning is physiological and psychological terrorism. It makes you hate life, hate yourself, hate mornings, hate your job, hate everyone who talks to you, and even hate your own dreams. It's misery.

Stop.

Just... Stop.

Stop trying to brute force positive change in your life.

You're doing this because you want to, because you choose to.

Practice an evening routine that makes early mornings not just possible, but easy, empowering, and fun.

My Morning Routine

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” ~ Aristotle

There is no perfect routine for everyone, but here's mine:

5 a.m. - Teeth, Gym Clothes, Breakfast Shake (Athletic Greens and 30g protein from Optimum Nutrition Whey), Coffee or Tea

5:30 a.m. - Gym or bike ride, alternating strength work and cardio work

6 a.m. - Meditation, Affirmations, Visualization, Writing

7 a.m. - Shower and shave

7:30 a.m. - Prepping for day job work and motivational reading or audiobook

7:55 a.m. - Off to work!

A few tips:

• I love coffee, and I love tea. I try to alternate each day, but especially on weekends and holidays I love to start my day with a good cup of coffee to get my energy right. My relationship with making coffee has vastly improved with my wife's gift of a small, simple, one-cup Keurig. When I drink tea, I'll usually enjoy caffeine-free rooibos (Texas Gold variety).
• I'm a big skeptic when it comes to the benefits claimed by most supplements, but Athletic Greens came on Tim Ferriss' recommendation. It seems expensive, but I can't lie: I can absolutely feel the difference now that I take greens daily. I truly believe I have better health, more energy, get sick less, get less sick when I'm sick, stay sick for less time, sleep and wake easier, have less pain and stiffness, and just feel so much better than before I started taking greens. In the past decade I've tried to stay consistent with eating a wide variety of vegetables to get the same benefits, as well as drinking kombucha for the probiotic benefits and eating kimchi for the prebiotic support, but I've always found that effort mentally exhausting. I still eat a variety of veg, but Athletic Greens has made fueling my body so simple (and the results so tangible) that I can't deny its value.
• I used to think I had to work out for an hour to get any benefit from exercise. Which of course meant I never exercised. With a sedentary day job and lifestyle, I could go days - maybe weeks - without doing anything to break a sweat. My personal morning routine includes a half hour of exercise, and I get a heck of a workout in in that time. You can get a lot done in five, ten minutes, if that's all you have. Doubt it? Try doing five minutes of burpees straight - you'll feel the burn. If nothing else, take a brisk five- or ten-minute walk. Move your bones. Get your blood flowing and oxygen to your brain. Do some pushups. Do some air squats. A little bit can go a long way; not only does this practice change your physical body, it changes your mental state as well.
• Your workouts don't have to suck, either. I'm blessed in that I naturally love to hit the gym or bike. But I taught myself to hate exercise early on because I thought I had to do too much, and that I had to do a specific, perfect routine. Do this, then this, then that, for this many reps in this way with this count and breathe right here but not there! and... What a drag. I fell back in love with working out when I stopped trying to be perfect at it. Just show up. Have fun. Feeling the treadmill today? Hit it! Elliptical? Glide on. Free weights instead? Get pumped. Want to use the machines instead? Push (and pull) it. Just have fun with it and let go of the perfectionism. Over time you'll learn more, balance your workouts better, and focus on the specific benefits you want from your workouts. But early on, dump all the responsibility and mental effort and just go have fun.
• Quit being skeptical and start experimenting and gathering feedback. I sabotaged my success in art, business, and life for years because I was always skeptical of this advice versus that. It was The Resistance, disguised as discernment, allowing my perfectionism to feed me excuse after excuse after excuse to "research more" and do not-a-damn-thing. Learn, then take violent action on what you've learned: immediately, tangibly, and with bold commitment.
• See below for my tips on meditation, affirmations, visualization, and writing or journaling.

My morning routine is a Frankenstein mix of guidance from Tim Ferriss, Michael Hyatt, and Hal Elrod's SAVERS system.

Speaking of which...

A Perfectly Imperfect System

"Don’t trick yourself into thinking your situation is permanent. That’s how it becomes permanent." - Michael Hyatt

Copy Michael Hyatt.

Copy me.

Copy Tim Ferriss.

Or, best, get a copy of Hal Elrod's fantastic The Miracle Morning.

His SAVERS system (along with Michael Hyatt's encouragement) was just the inspiration and structure I needed to finally become an early riser.

S: Silence. Meditation. I use the Headspace app for easy, enjoyable guided meditation.

A: Affirmations. The age-old self-help trick of affirming the best of yourself. Invaluable because it keeps you from getting distracted from your unique and wonderful Why. I keep mine in a starred Evernote note so I can read them off my phone every morning, and change them up as I change. The world has a bad habit of getting you down, about yourself and about life. Affirmations are the inoculation you need to stay positive and on the path.

V: Visualization. Reinforcing your Why. What would your perfect day look like? If you had financial freedom, what would you do with your time? If you had location freedom, where would you be? What tools would you enjoy using to make your art? What would it be like to work with only ideal clients whom you adore? What would you do today if you weren't scared? Like Olympic-level athletes, close your eyes and really visualize yourself being your best self and living your most perfect vision of life.

E: Exercise. Get your blood flowing. Get oxygen to your brain. Get a little health victory early in the day, to set the tone for the rest. Reinforce to yourself that you are conscious and purposeful in your health and wellness choices. I use the Sworkit app for quick, easy, variable, and short bodyweight exercises. Yoga is another great option.

R: Reading. Feed your mind, creativity, inspiration, and motivation. Give your subconscious good material to ponder on throughout the day. If you need a place to start, try Peace Is Every Step or The Practicing Mind for peace and presence, How To Stay Motivated for motivation, Essentialism for focus, Start With Why or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for purpose.

S: Scribe, or journaling. Write to get everything that's bouncing around your mind and weighing on your spirit down to paper. Get it out of your system. Brain dump. Your mind will desperately try to hold on to everything it thinks it needs to remember and figure out until you put that mental noise in a safe place where the brain can let go. (How many of you awesome PTP readers have written me an e-mail and at the end said, "Wow, just writing this down has made me feel so much better." Make this a part of your daily practice and multiply the benefits times 365.)

You can customize anyone's system to make it your own and serve your unique personality and needs, but you will enjoy so much more success faster if you adopt a proven system to start with.

Not knowing what to do will kill your morning motivation.

You'll waste all of the energy and willpower you earned by getting up early just figuring out what to do with your time.

Take imperfect action. Fend off perfectionism. Allow some blind faith, and follow the system of someone you respect. You can break it apart and rebuild it to a custom fit later, but especially at the start when every little win is so important, give yourself the best odds of success by copying someone else's successful routine.

And give yourself grace.

This is just practice.

You're just practicing being a better you, becoming an early riser, getting good stuff done early and starting your day with victory.

There's no perfection to achieve, no optimal system.

You'll do great some days. You'll blow it on others. But now you're aware, you're wiser, you're empowered. Next time you snooze your alarm to the last possible second, you'll now know why (stayed up too late, didn't honor your evening routine, didn't plan your morning to-do's, didn't reinforce your Why...). And you'll know what to fix tonight for a win tomorrow.

Now, you're not living by distraction and reaction; you're living by presence and proactive choice.

Morning Routine For Photographers

“Life’s too short” is repeated often enough to be a cliché, but this time it’s true. You don’t have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It’s not just pointless; it’s painful. - Seth Godin

The first hour of your morning routine is all about you; about giving you the mental, physical, and spiritual fuel you need to be your best self.

The second hour of your morning routine serves your dreams, your passion project, your side hustle.

This is where you get to get important work done not just on yourself, but on your photography and business. This is the time you were looking for when you told me through my reader survey that, behind confidence and ahead of money, you needed more time to invest in growing your art and business acumen.

After an hour of self-care and self-betterment each morning, you'll be like a thoroughbred ready to break out of the gate and race. You will get more done in this second hour of your morning than you'll get done the rest of the day.

(Although with the kind of energy and motivation you'll get from this kind of morning, you're likely to have a kick-arse day all day long. The benefits only multiply.)

What you'll do with this power hour depends on where you're at in your photography journey.

• You can work on your Identity as a professional photographer, growing your confidence and defining your 'voice' as a working artist.
• You can work on getting legal, researching your DBA, sales tax permit, income and expense records and reporting, and liability insurance.
• You can work on your launch, setting your startup prices and policies, defining your ideal client, and determining how you'll market yourself to them.
• You can actively market your business: craft a marketing campaign, build your graphic pieces for it, schedule your social media and photo blog support, list potential co-op partners, run a contest, work your PR contacts, survey your clients or market, A/B split test your headlines, offer, promotions, copy, and landing pages, or take action on any of the countless ways to effectively and efficiently market your business (which is just connecting the dots between the value you offer and those who would be most blessed by it).
• You can study and practice your art, mastering one technique or pose or setup or style or lighting or any of the factors that make for a great, salable portrait. Don't forget the practice: figure you'll retain 10% of what you read and 100% of what you practice, so your time is ten times more effective when you put what you're learning into use. Learning is priceless, but you may as well be pouring water into a broken cup if you don't take what you're learning and apply it to your art and business with violent immediacy and commitment.

Not sure what to do next? E-mail me today, tell me where you're at in your journey and where you feel stuck, and I'll help you get back on the path to progress.

Do This, Not That

"I wanted Level 10 success, but my level of personal development was at about a two; maybe a three or a four on a good day." - Hal Elrod

When I began practicing my morning routine:

• I stopped sleeping in and starting my day with feelings of failure, and started taking advantage of my morning time to put wins on the board while the rest of the world was still asleep.
• I stopped my limiting belief that I was a night owl, and started getting important, productive, progress-making work done to start my day.
• I stopped committing hours of my life to low-yield distractions like drama series and cooking shows in the evening, and started getting those hours back with high-yield work on my dreams in the morning.
• I stopped going to my day job mad and resentful, and started being present and grateful at work because I'd already made tangible progress toward my dreams that morning.
• I stopped wishing I was somewhere else all the time, and started living in the present at my job, and with my wife, kids, and friends. All this because I started my day with victory, with self-care, with progress toward the dreams that are so important to me, putting me in a place of alignment for the entire day.
• I stopped never having time for healthy eating and exercise, and started prepping meals and energizing my entire day with a great workout every morning.
• I stopped letting my dreams slip to "tomorrow" day after day, and started making real, powerful, measurable progress up the mountain of success.
• I stopped feeling like I was fighting with life, and started dancing with it instead.

I'm telling you, no matter how loudly The Resistance is screaming in your head that this is impossible, that you'll never be an early riser, that you HATE mornings and will never ever stick to a morning routine and like it, you don't know what you don't know.

Every failure you've experienced with becoming an early riser is tied tightly to a lack of support.

By way of stubbornness or ignorance (again, give yourself grace), you haven't given yourself what you need to have the best odds at an awesome early morning.

That changes right now.

Set an alarm for tonight to start your evening routine before bed.

And set an alarm to rise equally early tomorrow.

Commit, persevere, have faith, and test the results over the next 30 days.

Just think about it:

Two hours a day. Eighteen workweeks of time a year. Is the leap of faith, the challenging of your limiting beliefs, the effort to try not worth it?

What dreams can you make reality with this kind of time, energy, focus, and willpower on your side?

Let your imagination run, then set your alarm, and make it possible.

"Our outer world will always be a reflection of our inner world. Our level of success is always going to parallel our level of personal development. Until we dedicate time each day to developing ourselves into the person we need to be to create the life we want, success is always going to be a struggle to attain." - Jim Rohn

This is Part 3 of my series: 9 practices to increase your productivity as a professional photographer

Read more here:

1. Essentialism
2. Evening Routine
3. Morning Routine
4. Mindfulness
5. Five Minutes
6. Kaizen
7. Time Blocking
8. What Gets Scheduled Gets Done
9. Imperfect Action

Like this series? Subscribe at the top-right of any page of this site to get all of my best stories and ideas in your Inbox.

Next Steps

• SLOW DOWN: This is a massive post because this is a massively powerful change you can make in your life. Becoming an early riser and practicing a purposeful morning routine has been one of those most powerful changes I've made to better my life. I can't emphasize the point enough: this is powerful, powerful stuff. Take the time to go back through this post, and craft your own list of action items and next steps.
• START TODAY: Start with setting an alarm for tonight, three hours before you usually go to sleep. Take that first hour to practice your evening routine. Set another alarm for tomorrow morning, two hours earlier than you usually rise. Maybe save this for a weekend when you don't have anything big going on. That'll let you snag an afternoon nap (try for just 15-20 minutes) and help your body ease into this new sleep schedule. But commit, stay consistent, test for 30 days, and see if you aren't getting more, and more important, things done toward your best life and your dreams of becoming a professional photographer.
• RTFM: Seriously: Hal Elrod's book The Miracle Morning is THE manual to becoming an early riser. It's a super-fun read, Hal's personality is fantastic, the writing is excellent and inspiring, and I can't even begin to cover in one blog post all the methods he presents to make early rising and morning rituals easy, fun, effective, and sustainable. This is the kind of investment will change the story of the rest of your life.
• BRAINSTORM SESSION: Get out your pen and paper. I'll bet you didn't do this exercise from my Evening Routine post, so I'll offer it again (this Why, this vision, is important enough to bear repeating): What would you do if you had an extra two hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to work on your health, art, business, and dreams?
• SUBSCRIBE TODAY: It's my calling to help you earn your first $5,000 to $50,000 as a part time professional photographer. Don't miss out on my best stories and ideas: subscribe to my e-mail newsletter today at the top-right of any page of this site.
• DO THIS NOW: What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me your answer (yes, right now!), and let's make a breakthrough.

---

by Outlaw Photographer James Michael Taylor

Climbing the mountain of success - Part IV: Next

Image by Trekking Rinjani, https://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkingrinjani/
CCBY-SA2.0 (desaturated, contrast)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part II: The Dip)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part III: Quitter)

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." - Robert Hughes

Welcome to the top.

You've survived The Dip - the long slog of steady, incremental, sometimes imperceptible gains found in the messy middle of any journey.

You've made it through the forest, and again you can see the light. You've made a breakthrough, and you can see that if you just keep doing the work, you'll reach the top of this mountain - you'll achieve the success you dreamed of.

Conquering the forest is all about persistence in the face of not knowing what lies ahead; about making best guesses and remaining tenaciously driven to pursue your goal.

The final stretch is less about fighting the unknown than the known. You can see the cliffs and plateaus here. They're big, sheer, craggy, and unwelcoming.

But the path is clear again (even if it's straight up). You've been through enough to know that success is inevitable; you just have to persevere. The obstacle is, as always, the way.

You see that now. You have to have gone through it to see it.

It's your time.

Rise.

Rise.

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." - Arthur Ashe

Successes big and small

The mountain of success is the experience; the journey. It is all that stands between you and your dreams. It's every moment of confusion, disappointment, fear, embarrassment, doubt, weakness. It's every little win, every inch of progress and ounce of faith.

Every startup photographer's personal mountain is different, but in many ways the same.

• Whether that's $5 or $5,000 or $50,000 in annual revenue as a part time professional photographer.
• Whether that's your first free shoot or first paid booking or a booked-solid 52 ideal clients in a year.
• Whether that's a city, state, national, or international award for your art.
• Whether that's your first $20 client or your first $2,000 client.
• Whether that's pushing "Publish" on your web site and officially launching your business or looking back at your calendar and seeing yourself booked solid with clients you love for pay you're worth.

Whatever your definition of success is today, here at the top of the mountain, you've achieved it.

You have both my congratulations...and my sympathies.

Because you're a human being.

And human beings have frustrating (if vital) programming: an algorithm that redefines success with each success.

With each goal achieved, our brain moves the goalpost. If we bet our happiness on success - instead of the journey that takes us there - we are scientifically ensuring that happiness will always be two steps ahead of us.

No doubt, reaching the top of the mountain is an incredible, proud, necessary achievement.

But having conquered the mountain...

What's next?

Look around. What can you see from this incredible height?

More mountains.

More forests.

More peaks...

...more successes, waiting for you to claim them.

Success begets success.

You are now a conqueror.

You know you can do this. And having done it, there's no going back to normal.

What will do you do next?

• Will you next climb the mountain of getting booked solid, 52 shoots a year, with a mix of free and paid shoots? All paid? All ideal clients?
• Will you next climb the mountain of earning your first paying client? Second? A record sale? Growing your per-client average sale?
• Will you next climb the mountain of doubling the variety of salable proofs you present to clients? Doubling your scenes to choose from at your favorite location? Doubling the emotional expression of your portraits?
• Will you next climb the mountain of emulating and innovating on the best marketing practices of photographers on Instagram? Pinterest? YouTube? Your local newspaper? Your co-op marketing campaigns?
• Will you next climb the mountain of taking your art and experience to a new level, creating ever-greater value for your clients? And commanding a greater fee for your time as a result?

Like the geography of Earth, there are limitless mountains to summit; countless opportunities to create, communicate, and command value within your market.

Having claimed victory over your first mountain, it's time to parlay that momentum into the next journey.

As promised, it does get easier.

But success is always a choice.

If you don't choose the next mountain, the next goal, the next milestone to strive for, life will choose for you.

The most empowering and intimidating truth in life is that you are in control.

You've got 360 degrees to choose from...

Where are you taking your part time photography business next?

"With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look - for dizzier heights." - Nikola Tesla

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part II: The Dip)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part III: Quitter)

Next Steps

• Here Now: Having seen the journey of the artist from the edge, to the forested climb, to the summit of the mountain - where are you in your journey? Are you still in the exciting, passion-fueled stage of seeing the mountain whole and ripe for claiming? Are you at the decisive moment of stamping down fear of the unknown to launch your business and step into the dark forest ahead? Are you deep in the forest, not knowing which way is up or what to do next or whether you're even getting closer to your dream? Have you battled through the forest and now you're overcoming the monstrous big challenges that remain between you and success? Are you at the top, overwhelmed with the many opportunities in sight? Put yourself in this story - which is really your story - and acknowledge the unique challenges and opportunities that exist just ahead of you. Wherever you are, you are blessed with an incredible opportunity: will you turn back, the same as so many others before you have? Or will you carry on, strive beyond, and overcome where those others have quit? The higher you climb, the bluer the skies, and rarified the air you breath. You get better with every choice you make to persevere, obstacles be damned.
• Brainstorm Session: If you choose bravery - if you choose to persevere tenaciously in your journey as a part time photography - where do you see yourself in three months? One year? Three years? If you were to Choose Yourself and enable your best self, what would your business look like? Your art? Your life? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
• Subscribe Today: It's my calling to help you earn your first $5,000 to $50,000 as a part time professional photographer. I am truly grateful for your readership, and encourage you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• Do This Now: What's the biggest struggle holding you back right now? E-mail me your answer (yes, right now!), and let's make a breakthrough today.
• Start The Conversation: If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below or drop me an e-mail. I'd love to hear how you're hustling to better your art, life, and business!

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by Outlaw Photographer James Michael Taylor

Climbing the mountain of success - Part III: Quitter

Image by Jorge Armando Garcia Galvez, www.flickr.com/photos/jgarciagalvez/
CCBY-SA2.0 (desaturated, contrast, crop)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part II: The Dip)

“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” — Bruce Lee

All doubt is gone: this was a bad idea.

You haven't seen a break in the forest in ages. You just keep doing...things. You don't know if you're getting any closer to the top of the mountain or not. You keep trying. But there's no payoff, no tangible wins.

You feel like you've been going in circles forever, getting nowhere, with a great deal of energy and heart expended to get there.

You've disappointed yourself. You've done your best, and come up short. You're not where you want to be, you've no idea how to get there, and quitting feels so, so much like the only option left.

Why can't I figure out which way is the right way? Why is this so hard? Why did I do this in the first place?

By now you're having this dialog out loud with yourself, with the forest, with God and every creature near enough to hear.

You beg the universe for a sign - permission to quit the journey and throw this dream in the trash (where it probably belongs). You desperately just want to give up and go home. You've peaked. You've lost. Game over. You've gone farther than you thought you could, but you've hit a wall you can't get around. You're not as good as you thought you could be.

The obstacle is bigger than your belief.

You stop.

You sit against a tree.

And you break down.

Right where The Resistance wants you.

This is where the lashings become truly brutal. A cruel voice growls directly into your soul.

"Stupid..."

"Embarrassment...

"Talentless..."

"Imposter..."

"Weak..."

"Idiot..."

"Loser..."

"Failure."

God it hurts.

Your body is numb, leaving only the ache in your soul; a radiating, convulsing brokenness. Raw. Vicious. Sadistic.

Every insecurity pressed, every past shortcoming relived, every limiting belief believed anew.

You scream. Then whimper.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't know why I'm doing this anymore. I don't know why this is so hard. I don't know...I don't know..."

Your whimpers go silent. You take shuddering breaths. And you drift.

Somewhere between conscious and dozing, between defeat and quitting, you dream.

You dream of your life, changed.

Because in your heart, you know that whether you go on or go home, your life will never be the same.

Your subconscious asks you hazily: "Which You can you live with? The one who dreamed, or the one who did?"

Flashes. Scenes. Words. Conversations. Visions. You see at once both versions of your life, both stories, both endings, both obituaries, both legacies.

Considered side by side like this, on a level of clarity beyond what the conscious mind allows, you know beyond doubt that if you quit now you will hate yourself forever for it. But you also know you can't go on. You know you don't know what to do, where to go next, or how much longer you can survive this journey. You've lost your Why.

A switch flips inside you.

You quit.

It's as visceral an experience as shutting off the breaker to a warehouse. Metallic. Cold.

Cold...

A cold wind hits you.

Colder now...

Your body shakes as the chill sets in.

This must be what death feels like. The death of a dream, of life-giving ambition and spirit and hope.

Colder...

Colder...?

Colder?

Your eyes snap open.

You're freezing.

You're awake.

Every hair stands on your body.

The cold.

The wind is cold!

You jump to your feet, turn your face to the wind, and begin racing toward it.

Your legs burn. Your chest aches. You're cold, but warming up quick. You suck wind as you trod heavy but fast toward the wind.

A sharp rise. You scramble up the swell. You can feel the cold wash over its edge.

Clawing, fighting, calling on every ounce of energy and faith you have left, you throw yourself over the crest.

You look up.

And see light.

More light than you've seen since you took those first brave, anxious steps into the forest.

Sunlight meets snow at the edge of the forest, and reflects painful but welcome into your eyes. It's a sight beautiful, overwhelming, and invigorating.

It's not the top of the mountain. But it's progress. It's tangible. You can touch, see, smell, taste, even hear it. The wind coming off the snow at once bites, swirls, whooshes, chills, and cleanses.

It's a new challenge. A new obstacle. A new plateau.

But you've made it. The end is close enough to feel.

Tenaciously, you have persisted where so many others have quit. You've strode through a cemetery of dreams left behind to die in that forest. So many who lost faith. So many who didn't power through. So many who didn't believe in themselves. So many who saw failure as a reason to quit instead of an opportunity to overcome.

You have survived The Dip.

And from here, there's nowhere to go but up.

"Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality." - Bruce Lee

In Part 4 of this series, you'll have to fight for every inch of progress in the final stretch before you reach the top. And you'll have to answer a life-changing question: "Where do I go from here?"

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part II: The Dip)

(Climbing the mountain of success – Part IV: Next)

Next Steps

• The Way: If you haven't read it yet, Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is The Way is the perfect book to put on your phone's Kindle reader. Every time you're tempted to check Twitter, scroll Facebook, play a quick round of Candy Crush, learn to load your Kindle reader instead. Take in a short chapter, a page, a few paragraphs of the empowerment within this book of wisdom. Stop distracting yourself from success and start holding yourself to a higher standard.
• Take Five: Set your alarm five minutes early for tomorrow. As soon as you're out of bed, wash your face, and sit down with five minutes of inspiration: Holiday's book, any book or audiobook on motivation, any motivational YouTube video, your affirmations, your vision board - anything that reinforces your dream and your capacity to reach it. Start every single day with fire.
• Brainstorm Session: Get out your pen and paper. Get real with yourself: what are all the horsesh*t excuses, reasons, justifications, weaknesses, and choices you're allowing to stand between you and your dream of becoming a successful part time professional photographer? Give me all of them. Give me 52 excuses. Give me more. Make your brain sweat, as James Altucher would say. Now take this list of what's truly holding you back, put a massive black X across every page, and then rip it to shreds. This one doesn't go in your Brainstorms folder. It's over: you are a new, better, stronger, unbreakable, unstoppable person, as of now - right now. Your success is inevitable because you choose it to be. Get to work.
• Subscribe Today: It's my calling to help you earn your first $5,000 to $50,000 as a part time professional photographer. I am truly grateful for your readership, and encourage you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• Do This Now: What's the biggest struggle holding you back right now? E-mail me your answer (yes, right now!), and let's make a breakthrough today.
• Start The Conversation: If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below or drop me an e-mail. I'd love to hear how you're hustling to better your art, life, and business!

---

by Outlaw Photographer James Michael Taylor

Climbing the mountain of success - Part II: The Dip

Image by ThreeIfByBike, www.flickr.com/photos/three_if_by_bike/ CCBY-SA2.0 (desaturated)

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

"Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant." — Viktor Frankl

What's truly harder: quitting and turning back, or committing and driving forward?

Striding boldly into the forest that separates you from your dream at the top of the mountain, you are emboldened by your own bravery, and a not insignificant dose of adrenaline.

Step after step, you've launched into your journey. You're in it, now: you're carving your own path up the mountain.

Your progress is steady. It feels good. You're proud. You feel strong. You've got a backpack full of tools, and you know how to use them...at least you hope so.

Progress feels good.

Then you start to get sore. Then tired. Then sweaty, itchy, almost hyper-sensitive. Hunger and exhaustion set in.

Night is coming.

It's going to be long and low.

This isn't so fun anymore. It isn't so easy. The biggest challenge is no longer just making the decision to climb the mountain - now, it's work. Honest work, but the kind of effort you're not used to in your 'normal' life. You don't feel able. In fact, you feel pretty clumsy, well outside your comfort zone.

"Nothing worth doing is easy," you repeat to yourself. You're right, but it doesn't help much.

Every time the path gets muddy and the way forward is too dark and hazy to see, quitting seems so easy.

Still, you feel your progress, and there's enough newness and scariness and excitement that quitting doesn't seem so... Necessary.

Give it time... Very soon, quitting will feel very, very necessary.

The first time you trip and twist your ankle...

The first time you stumble over some venomous or teeth-laden forest creature...

The first time you do something truly foolish, slap your forehead and say, "How the hell could I be so stupid!"

The Resistance is hunting you, haunting you, here in the forest. This is his playground, not yours. You are not home here. You are not welcome here.

As night falls and the sounds of nocturnal creatures rise, you settle in for camp. You wrap up, warm up, eat, enjoy a cup of campfire coffee. You tend your wounds; minor, this early in the journey. Your body's ready to sleep, but sleep doesn't come quickly as your mind processes all of your wins and challenges so far in the journey.

You smile.

"Man, I've already got some great stories to tell."

With this, you relax, and sleep.

Dream...

Then wake.

Oooh...shouldn't have done that. Waking up was a bad idea.

Sore. Sweaty. Itchy. Who knows how many things took a bite during the night.

There's so much inertia to overcome after stopping.

But this mountain isn't going to climb itself.

You stretch, scratch, pack up, and peer up the mountain.

At least, you think you're looking the right way.

Wait a minute...

As you look this way and that, you realize you're not sure which direction you came from...how far you've made it...worst, how much further to the top of the mountain, and which direction is the right one to get there.

Damnit!

Which path is the right one? Which is the fastest way to the top? Is the fastest way the easiest way, or the hardest? A fearsome thought: which way is the wrong way?

You're in The Dip. You don't even know what The Dip is, or how in it you are, or what it takes to get out of it.

But you're there. You can feel it.

As with so many times to this point, you're presented with the ultimate conflict:

Turn back?

Or go deeper?

Enter The Resistance...

Hey, you gave it your best, and just like everyone else knew, you're not good enough to do this. I tried to tell you. You're so deep in the forest now, and so stupid for getting yourself into this situation. How much easier would it have been to turn back at the mountain's edge? I tried to tell you. How much smarter to have stayed home and kept your dream what it should have been - just a dream. A fantasy. You're an adult; you should know better. I tried to tell you... I tried to tell you this was stupid; that you're stupid. Now the best thing you can do is cut your losses and quit this stupid game before you really screw up and embarrass yourself. Go home, sit down, shut up, and be normal.

Whoops. The Resistance went too far again.

Normal...

The word - all it means, to you, about you - manifests in your psyche, a sick whisper from deep inside.

Normal...

The friction between your dream and your fear lights a spark. It catches in the tinder of your dormant spirit, and emotions blaze: anger, fear, disgust chief among them.

Normal...

You can't abide normal anymore.

That's why you're here. That's why you're sweaty, smelly, confused, a little scared, and a lot of sore, here in the thickest of the forest. The summit is out there, up there, somewhere. And you know the only thought more painful than striving on against all obstacles is that of turning tail, turning back, and living a normal, defeated life.

You know success is in your hands. You know failure is, too.

True failure. Not the kind where you pivot, change direction, and quit one path to pursue a greater good.

True failure is where dreams go to die. Where dreams lay in a grave and wither, all of their power and energy and inspiration left to rot. But never vanish. If dreams just vanished when ignored, we'd not feel the soul-sucking emptiness of their unrealized potential. You may take your eyes off your dream, but even through hollowed eye sockets and sunken scowl, your dreams never take their eyes off of you.

No. You can't abide normal anymore. The mountain is where you make your stand.

This dream deserves to live, breathe, and thrive.

Sun's up. It's time to go.

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." - Marcus Aurelius

The obstacle is the way

Staying the course after the shiny newness wears off and the easy gains are made is what separates the dreamer from the doer - the regretful from the truly great. When you feel stuck, confused, lost, and incapable - that's when you need to lean in, press on, and double down in your fight against The Resistance...

In the third part of this series, The Resistance will stop at nothing to keep you from summiting the mountain. You're hurt. You're lost. You're questioning every decision. There's no end in sight. You've lost hope...which is exactly where The Resistance wants you.

(Climbing the mountain of success - Part I)

(Climbing the mountain of success – Part III: Quitter)

Next Steps

• Reinforcements: If you're in The Dip, steel yourself: this is the long haul. Read The Dip by Seth Godin, to understand the landscape and nature of The Dip. Read The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, to flip the script and see the opportunities within challenges. Listen to The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner, to learn the tools for making The Dip easiest to navigate. And if you haven't yet, read the indispensable The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, to know the face of your greatest enemy.
• Brainstorm Session: Get out your pen and paper. Describe your perfect day, five years in the future, after having summited the mountain of success. What are you working for in life by becoming a part time professional photographer? In what ways does success better your life? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
• Subscribe Today: It's my calling to help you earn your first $5,000 to $50,000 as a part time professional photographer. I am truly grateful for your readership, and encourage you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
• Do This Now: What's the biggest struggle holding you back right now? E-mail me your answer (yes, right now!), and let's make a breakthrough today.
• Start The Conversation: If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below or drop me an e-mail. I'd love to hear how you're hustling to better your art, life, and business!

---

by Outlaw Photographer James Michael Taylor