Work matters

I was recently talking with a photographer-friend here in SD about some significant changes in my life. I had been a bit down and while trying to help me through some rough bits he asked me about my plans, including whether I was going to join a law firm when I graduate. I couldn’t say “no” fast enough! Besides the dress code issues (I am not a conservative suit kind of woman), I couldn’t imagine not doing what I do now!

I do feel incredibly lucky about my professional life. That’s really important. Sure, there are days where it’s hard or the bank balance gets low, but overall, yeah I love my job.

How do you feel about yours? I mean overall–not just now when maybe things have been particularly slow. Here’s an interesting “quiz” (from the Harvard Biz folks) to give yourself a bit of a professional check-up.

I agree with the author that it is important to feel some relevance, happiness, and satisfaction in your work. Sometimes we get distracted from the overall picture by the day-to-day negatives, but look at your work from a distance to get a good view of the whole thing. Are you happy with it–with your legacy?

If not, don’t get depressed or throw in the towel. As Scarlet O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day!” If you’re not happy with your work, start making the changes to get happy with it. For example, your images. Think about the images you make and the images you WANT to make. How can you make more of what you want? And start doing that work, even if it is just making one image on the new path. Tomorrow, one image…next week, another, next month, more…before you know it you have the body of work you meant to make, with intention. That will go a long way to a deeper satisfaction in what you are doing professionally.