Maybe I’m starting to get the hang of this.

Well this week or so has been quite monumentous really, I haven’t scaled a mountain or saved anyones life or anything like that. But in my own tiny little world I have made a huge shift in terms of where I am in the world. I was at first massively overwhelmed on entering the Social Media world. I kept coming across loads of articles about what you have to do in order to be a success to make your business work and so on.

Striking out on my own has been pretty terrifying, after years of working a corporate job the adjustment to doing it yourself is quite a big one and it is easy to get lost in the tidal wave of what you should be doing in order to make things work and where you should be by such and such a time and the truth is I think that it takes as long as it takes and for some that is longer than others. I have still been getting caught up in my I have to do something sensible to pay the bills and something sensible looks like what everyone else is saying has to be done, which didn’t seem to be working.

I have been spending most of my time running round trying different things and ding less of what I left my job to do. All the while becoming more and more frustrated and doubting of myself. Then I had a crazy idea, what about I stop trying to do all this stuff that I’m not really interested in and get back to what it is I really care about. Did it make me an over night success? No. It did however remind me of why I love what I do, why I decided to step out on my own and trust that I could manage from month to month and suddenly like magic I started to find the joy in what I do again.

Social Media

I have over the last few months been exploring the different types of tools and Social Media toys out there designed for getting yourself out there into the world and being seen. What has struck me is just how amazing it is to be able to sign up and plug into a world of different people and cultures. Sharing similar interests and generously interacting with each other. It’s all very captivating and exciting.

I can post up my work and show anyone who cares to follow or watch me what I am up to. I can tell people what I am thinking, I can even show people where I am. I can selectively share with different groups. It’s all very engaging and I more often than once found myself spending a whole day glued to the screen following and exploring other people’s work and meanderings. It’s fun and there is always something new and exciting to see or explore but what I realize more and more is I just don’t have enough time for it all. What I am missing out on now is time for me, for how I see the world and my work. I find more and more I am looking at other people’s work and questioning whether or not my work is up to scratch and whether or not what I am trying to refine in the way I capture my work is valid. This kind of comparative behaviour is a real creativity killer. I have come across it before and as a younger person so I am familiar this destructive behaviour and I am to make that shift that enables me to look at what I can learn from what I see rather than compare myself to it. So where do you find a balance with all this stuff?

I can completely see that there is great value in the tools that give me the ability to reach out to people I have not had the chance to reach out to before and make a connection with them. But there is very little point in reaching out if I then have nothing to say, or I have not taken the time to focus on my work. What I am getting more and more from exploring the social media landscape is that most importantly although I am dazzled by the sheer wealth of incredible talent out there I am looking to connect with people and to connect with others as a person. I want to share not just the work I do but the parts of me and my history that got to where I am and maybe in some way to help others looking for the same thing to keep reaching for what they are going for.