New Year = New Opportunities

In this new year everything has changed and nothing has changed.  Many people say that the economy is getting better; many others say it’s staying the same or getting worse. Is the glass half full or half empty?  It’s a matter of choice.

So what are your choices this year?  Most choices you have this year haven’t even presented themselves yet; it is a whole year after all. Although the choices have not yet presented themselves, you can wait for them or you can go out and make the opportunities that create your ability to choose.

Many people have spent the last year or more sitting and waiting; waiting for this or that to get better, for the situation to improve. However a few people have gone out and decided to make their own opportunities and they have driven themselves and their businesses forward. Which were you?  Better question, which do you want to be?

The old saying ‘there is no time like the present’ has never been more true. There is, and never has been, a time like we have today. We have an opportunity to remain paralyzed in fear and do nothing. If we do nothing, then nothing will get better. Or we can invest in our future and begin to heal not just our economy but ourselves too.

Each person needs to decide to invest in themselves. When each of us take this little step and if we are honest and willing we will make things better. This will spill over into our businesses and into each aspect of our lives. When the attitudes change businesses will get busier and that will in turn spark a recovery that is based in empowerment and growth, and it is sustainable.

Not that many years ago there was a movie called” Pay It Forward”. In that movie a young man did exactly that; he paid debts forward by helping others. Even insurance companies have picked up on the idea. Perhaps you have seen the commercials where the guy stops a woman from walking into the street when a car is coming. She then helps someone with boxes, who helps someone with a door that lets out the guy who stops the first woman from walking into the street.

The idea is to do the next right thing no matter whether it is for you or for someone else. So what is the next right thing?  I believe that the next right thing is to grow, not just as individuals but as a neighbor, a city, a country and eventually a world.

So what does all this have to do with photography and the photography business? A better question is how will my comments above help you or me? By each person investing into their own future they also invest in yours and mine. They pay it forward.

So what future will you invest in today?