Why You Can’t Rely On Motivation To Progress As A Fashion Photographer
I speak to so many of you every week, and one recurring theme that comes up is this:
“I want to be successful, but for some reason, I just can’t seem to find the motivation.”
When you lack motivation for something, we start to doubt ourselves. It makes us feel rubbish, and that can be when the negative self talk sets in. “I’m crap. I’m useless. I’ll never get anything done. I’ll never be successful. I keep procrastinating. Everyone else is doing more photoshoots and working with bigger brands. Why can’t I be like that?”
We’ve all been there. I’ve been there more than once, I promise!
The truth is, motivation is like a unicorn. When you’ve got it, it’s great, but when it’s gone, it feels like this mythical creature that we think might exist somewhere….but we don’t know for sure.
So here’s the secret: you can’t rely on motivation to push you forward. Sure, it would be amazing if we woke up every single morning feeling pumped! Feeling ready to go! Feeling excited to sit at our desks and pump out 30 emails to brands that we want to shoot for.
But the truth is that those days of motivation happen very infrequently.
So what can we do if we can’t rely on motivation?!
We can strive for small, tiny pieces of progress every day.
I recently read a book called “The 1% Rule” by Tommy Baker. (Affiliate link) It’s a great book, and if you’re interested in habits, productivity and getting s*** done, you’ll probably love it! Inside the book, he essentially talks about how if we take one small step, every single day, in the direction of where we want to go, you’ll improve your business or your life by 365% every year.
It makes total sense, and is actually pretty comforting to me that all I need to do each day is take one small step in the right direction, and I’ll be naturally making progress. It’s impossible not to!
And guess what the best part of all of this is? When we start to see progress, it motivates us more. The more progress you make towards your goals each day, the more motivated you’ll feel to keep pushing forward! That’s where the magic sets in.
I can attest to it too. I’ve totally seen how when I notice things starting to work in my photography business, I feel more motivated to keep going. This was never more true than when I sent my first pitch email to a brand and got a positive response. The progress I saw thanks to that pitch email was HUGE, and motivated to keep email more brands. As those emails began to pay off, and I began to truly see how impactful pitching was for my fashion photography career… well that was all the motivation I ever needed to keep going.
I’m sure that you can think of an example in your own life of when you progressed in something and suddenly felt more motivated because of it! And it doesn’t need to be related to photography at all. It could be health, relationship, school, or lifestyle related. Find an example of a time you’ve experienced it yourself, and make a note.
If you’re struggling to think of what small, but helpful steps you could take each day/week/month that would be simple, but could lead to compounding progress over time, here are a few ideas:
Send 1 pitch email to a brand every day for 30 days.
Comment and engage on Instagram posts for 15 minutes every day
Write one blog post a week for a month
Share a video on TikTok every day for 30 days
Produce one portfolio photoshoot a month over a period of 12 months
Let me know by commenting what your experience of progress + motivation was, and what you might start doing to improve your progress and motivation for yourself. I’d love to hear :)
