Thoughts on Success and Eating Cake.

So I follow the blogs of several well known photographers and many of them focus on "leaving your nine to five, or getting out from behind the cubical" as if that is the key to success. I suppose for many people that is the goal. They have become photographers to get out of dead end jobs or it is their passion to only do photography. And many times I have judged myself against that thought, and felt unsuccessful, when really I never should have done that. My husband, sweet that he is, gave me a little pep talk on my feelings of success (or lack thereof) and I took some things from that conversation and mulled it all over, and came to the conclusion that everyone else's definition of success doesn't work for me.

At the end of the day I am extremely lucky to do what I do both for my day job and my business. I like doing what I do and I want to have my cake and eat it too. I went to school all those years ago to become a graphic designer...I love to design, and lucky me I have a fantastic job with an amazing company that hired me to be in charge of the design department, I love it! And bonus... its minutes from home. Awesome.

I also love my photography work. It is my creative outlet, the way I can expressive myself freely, and capture your expressions in an artistic way. It makes me happy to make my clients happy, and gives me a satisfaction like I have never had before. I love to see the feedback that someone gives to me when an image I created made them laugh or cry or feel loved.

So in conclusion, after re-evaluating the meaning of success for me in my life, I realize that having my day job makes me very successful, having my photography business makes me very successful, having a happy marriage with a wonderfully supportive caring and loving husband makes me very successful, having 3 beautiful healthy children that I love makes me very successful, and I dont want to give up any of those areas to reach what someone else's version of success is. I will have my cake and eat it to, thank you very much, because thats what you should do with cake.

P.S. The company I work for Cartech books Just launched their brand spanking new website at http://www.cartechbooks.com/ you can find lots of gifts their for the car buff in your life (and you can see me and the crew and some of my photography work on the about us page.) Enjoy the thanksgiving holiday everyone - wishing you all your own version of success.