Friday, September 28, 2007

What is is that DRIVES you

So my beautiful, beautiful wife and I had just had our 6 month anniversary. When we first got married, we decided to continue marriage counseling for at least the first year, of our wonderful marriage. I love going to our sessions... well usually have to be dragged into them. The funny thing is, after the session, I am loving it so much that I have to be dragged out!

This week I feel like God was speaking to me. I watched David Jay's video, "how to present yourself" , that is on Pro Photo resource (a great resource for info on photography), Then, later that night i went to a counseling session with my wife. I brought up a few of the things that David touched on, that struck me.

What is it that drives you?

Me?


I asked hoping that Matt, our marriage counselor, was going to say "No, I was asking Candice." A million things raced through my head.

The one thing that stuck out in our conversation is motivation. Matt mentioned that there are two ways to motivate yourself, external and internal. He stated how important it is to be internally motivated rather than externally motivated. He explained,

"to be motivated internally is to be motivated within yourself i.e. because it is something that you love, or because of someone that you love; to be externally motivated is basically motivation through comparison of yourself to your peers or through jealousy of their success you attempt to one up them. The dangers of externally or peer motivating yourself are 1. you will never excel higher than whoever it is that you are comparing yourself to, and 2. you are not developing who you really are. "

Immediately I realized how relevant this is to the industry of wedding photography. Have Influences but don't let them drive you, let them influence you. Figure out what it is that you love and let theat drive you! It is so important to develop who you are and to really let it show.

6 comments:

OHANA PHOTOGRAPHERS said...

mark, awesome post! have a killer cali weekend!

THE PARSONS said...

I totally know exactly what you are talking about. In the high school clique existing of wedding photographers, it gets overwhelming..."how do I stand out? What's the use of yet another photographer? I could never be as good as ____" etc. and yet, there is such inner drive, joy, and love for the artform - for this gift given, that I have to just sit back and trust that the One who made me knows why He made me this way.

Enoch Photography said...

Great thought provoking post...
My wife and I did marriage counseling prior to getting married, I think that is such a great thing for starting out in marriage. But then going the extra year... dood that's a wonderful idea... which we would have done that. Our church starts a marriage series tomorrow "My Amazing Marriage" - can't wait for it.

AHS Photography said...

good words man.-aaron

Dawn Malone said...

Mark, great post! This kinda sums up what I was feeling last night when I posted. Trying to improve my website/blog, not wanting to out do anyone, but I just want to have my own look. Then I realized all the glory goes to the Lord. He needs to be the one that drives me.
It is great that you both are striving to work on your marriage during the first year.
Always remember 1Cor 13:4-7. It needs to be posted in every home.

Jennifer Elaine said...

Very nice post...I've been thinking about the idea of influence lately and you totaly hit this on the head. Love your photos and I can't wait to meet you at Starbox!