Well, we made it to 2019.  Is the turning of a new year a big deal for you?   If so, that’s great.  It can be a wonderful milestone to make some commitments to yourself, or others, for the coming days.  Everyone has their own level of commitment to the sentiment of New Years. For me though, I’m not much on celebrating the new year and making resolutions solely based upon the turning of a calendar page.  I don’t know why or when this came to be, I don’t remember ever making a big deal of it, its just the way I’ve felt for as long as I can remember.

A lot of my friends have been sharing their New Years resolutions for 2019.  I do wish them all the best for their commitments and desire for self improvement! I generally don’t make any of the typical commitments at the New Year.  I prefer to be consciously aware of myself and my desires and goals throughout the year and make continual adjustments and commitments all along.  I strive for continual improvement all throughout the year, either in small steps or large steps.

As for my photography, the same holds true.  I don’t make any large commitments at the New Year, no grand resolutions to travel more, shoot more epic sunsets, post to my blog daily, or anything other grand goal. I do have a vision for where I’d like to be with my photography, though I don’t make specific commitments to be “at X level before Y time” types of things.  I spend the year constantly evaluating where I’m at photographically, be aware of what’s going well and what could be improved upon.  After each shoot I do a quick mental evaluation of what I did well and what I didn’t do so well and make a decision if I want to improve in a particular area. I’ll look across a month or two and see how things are going and make decisions if I need to course correct or not to stay on the general path of where I’d like to go. The one constant with me, the one commitment to myself, is that I am constantly moving forward with my photography, constantly improving my knowledge/skills/abilities, or growing my business in a measurable way.  If during my look-backs I don’t see any measurable progress, I’ll typically make a decision and come up with a plan to improve in one or two areas.  I usually don’t set lofty goals, but instead manageable ones that I know I have a good chance of succeeding at so that I can show myself some measurable progress.    It’s just the way I choose to grow and develop my photography, day by day, little by little, small steps at a time to achieve lasting measurable growth.

So what do you do?  Do you make New Years resolutions?  I’d be really interested to hear what you do in the comments below.    I hope that you have a fantastic 2019!!!

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