An open-letter to myself on another 30-something birthday

Hello dear self - 

Today is your birthday, another 30-something-one... another one that makes you feel like you don't want to admit which 30-something it truly is. Will you still be doing this when you're in your forties? Probably. I know you have, do, and will likely continue to struggle with your age - WHY though? You've always been one to believe that age is just a number, and that another year older is and will always be significantly better than the alternative.

You need to teach yourself to truly and fully accept that your age doesn't matter - and the part about your age that nags at you the most - that your age has no weight on the success of your business.

So what if you "got started" with opening a business later in life. You were still photographing weddings before being a wedding photographer was a "cool thing". It shouldn't matter about the years in between when you didn't shoot weddings, and tried other careers. You were just spreading your wings and figuring out what you wanted to do most.

So what if you feel like every photographer on the face of the planet is younger than you. Everybody starts somewhere and everybody starts at different times. The success of those others as well as the success of your own business isn't governed by how many years we've all been alive.

So what if you feel like you've "missed" time that you could have been doing photography and could have been enjoying life as a wedding photographer. The point is you're doing it NOW - focus on that, not the time that is behind you.

You're already well aware of years in the past where you allowed negativity to make you not realize how good things actually were at that time. And what have you learned from it? That you now - years since - look back and know that you were more blessed than you took the time to notice. So obviously you know that in the next 5, 10, 15+ years, you're going to look back at RIGHT NOW and think man, I had it so good, life was so great, my age truly didn't matter at all, why the heckkkk did I not focus on that vs the negative bits.

So go, sweet girl, celebrate those 30's of yours, realize what a sweet spot this truly is, and stop allowing yourself to think that you're too old for the creative industry, too old for anything really. OH and for the love of crap - eat more donuts.


Hugs that count,
Self.