Success Is Fleeting

In recent entries I talked about dealing with disappointment, then went on to discussing turning rejection into success and Joe succinctly pointed out that many of us don't want to run a small business with all it implies.

This raises the whole issue of what is success, how do you achieve it and what happens then.

I have bad news, success is fleeting. No matter what your personal definition of success is - getting published, having your own show, selling a print for more than $100, winning a prize in the local camera club, whatever it might be, once you achieve that goal, your definition of success automatically changes, now you need a show in a major gallery, or you up the print price success point to $500 or you decide magazine publication is not enough, now you need book publication, or you have to win a national competition.

I suspect it's universal human nature to want to achieve the next goal, forgetting the achievement of the recent goal almost as soon as it's achieved. If I'm wrong do let me know your secret to being satisfied with the goals you have already reached.

If I'm right, then you too need to stop and appreciate the successes you have had. Perhaps they are small - a friend admiring a photograph, but we need to take our successes when we can.

Of course, if we never let anyone see our work, if it hides in old paper boxes, who's to appreciate it?

Sometimes it's not necessary to move on to new goals, rather, to repeat occasionally goals already achieved - get a print in the readers section of a magazine - well done. Perhaps you should submit again. Would life really be that bad if you occasionally had an image printed, yet never published a book. Many who haven't had an image published, ever, in any form, would think you crazy if you weren't happy with this much success.

It doesn't hurt to have higher goals, so long as we don't discount the lesser successes we continue to have.