Are You Facing Photographer Burnout?

Imagine this.

You plod along day after day facing the same results.

You know what you want but you just can’t reach it. Things are holding you back from achieving what you truly want to achieve. You dread getting up. You dread facing the day. You’re tired at the end of the day.

Something’s gotta change. But what? What can you do?

These are classic indications of burnout. But what truly is burnout? And do you really have it?

Burnout is the point at which you reach exhaustion of either physical or emotional strength and motivation as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.

Burnout can be based on a variety of things, including:

Having a negative work atmosphere

Not loving what you are doing

Not believing in what you are doing

Having a horrible boss

Having the wrong clientele

False feelings of overwhelm

Negative feelings around inappropriate action

If you see yourself in any of these, and you know you’re probably facing burnout, now what? Where do you go from here?

First, realize that burnout isn’t something controlled by outside sources. Instead, burnout is internalized and comes from self-imposed feelings created in reaction to your surroundings. When you feel pain, you continue to internalize it until it moves from feelings, to daily inflictions, to a complete restructure of your lifestyle.

And that’s when burnout really impacts you. [Read more…]

5 Life Balance Tips For Busy Photographers

Weekdays. Weekends. Early morning. Late at night. If you are wondering what the difference is because you have every ounce of time filled up, maybe its time to stop and put more balance into work and personal life.

With cutbacks, layoffs, and general uncertainty in the economy, people are putting in extra time in a variety of areas. But even if you have a full time job and you can’t reduce your hours, there are ways to spend more time focusing in on what is truly important to you.

Here are 5 ways to help take back the control in your life.

1. Build more downtime into your schedule

Calendars are wonderful things. With a glance, you can easily tell all the things you have to do, and whether or not something new will fit in.

The problem is we tend to use calendars for scheduling other people’s events and routines. When your daughter’s school has a fundraiser on Thursday night, it goes on the calendar. Weekly soccer practices and games go on the calendar too.

But what about an hour for a daily run? Or a night out with your spouse for dinner and a movie? Or even a Sunday afternoon lying on the couch with a good book?

We tend not to put things like this on the calendar – we’ll do it when we have time. But the only real way to make sure you have personal time to do the things you truly want to do is to schedule it. [Read more…]