2013 was a pretty awesome year. As weird as this might sound, I honestly had no real goals or resolutions when January 1st 2013 hit me. I actually celebrated the new year a day early by seeing the last sunrise of the 2012 with a great group of photography friends. You can check out the photo below to see the conditions we were shooting in. It was dang cold. Always is. haha.
As much as I love excelling myself and getting better at what I do and who I am, I kind of left 2013 open minded. As winter passed and spring came, I kept taking photographs and pushing myself as a photographer and less as a video guy or whatever you want to call me. I found myself following my heart and my conscience quite often.
Through the winter I built up a decent online following through Facebook and Instagram which led to some great new friendships. I was even doing some blogging for a few websites, which was pretty fun. I was style trying to figure out what blogging was and what it means to me personally. It wasn’t until the spring of 2013 that I started to give myself some goals. I started a podcast/blog with a good friend and had a pretty good run with it too. It was mega fun while it lasted. You can check out Photo Drives here. Near the end of April I was feeling a bit down. I had gained about 20lbs or so and just felt like I needed some change.
From late April 2013 through may and the summer I pushed myself to eat better and exercise each day. For the first month I was on a very strict diet to jump start my focus. I followed an eating and workout routine based on a plan from the book “The Four Hour Body” by Tim Ferris. I figured I would give it a run since you didn’t need a gym. The diet was actually enjoyable too. It helped me remove processed goods from my home and really focus on eating real and whole foods. In May I lost about 10-15 pounds. I didn’t just look better, I felt better had more energy and really started just enjoying my days more.
Right smack dab in the middle of all that commitment to my wellness, I lost something pretty important to me. My Instagram account was hacked and stolen. I had over 3500 followers and just shy of 800 photos posted. I emailed the support team and got no help. It pretty much sucked especially since it was on my 25th birthday. Surprisingly I held my head high and inspired myself to start my Fragments project, which truly ignited my passion for writing, photography, and most importantly, learning to live life as it should be lived.
Through out the summer I started getting involved with a ton of new friends and even met someone that now means the world to me. She and her three beautiful children make me extremely happy. It’s beyond awesome. At the same time I was developing new relationships, I began helping with Pressgram and it’s community development and marketing plan. Now I lead a great team and community through Discover Pressgram and continue to be a part of the core Pressgram team. John Saddington has been inspiring, encouraging and quite the mentor to me in 2013. It has been great to get to know him and have him lead me into a leadership role.
What’s amazing about everything that has happened so far this year with me, my work and my personal endeavors is that pretty much every time I pursued a new project or put time and energy into day to day things I loved, it some way, shape or form I managed to help and inspire people. Sometimes I was trying to, but most of the time I was just expressing myself and sharing my stories. Relations through context are a powerful thing.
When others can relate to us we seem to form a trust with one another and grow in it. It makes sense, but to me its wonderfully mysterious at the same time. I love how helping others through being our honest and whole selves can be of good fortune to others. It’s really cool. It’s something to be excited about. Which brings me to my next point of discussion.
In 2014 rather than focusing only on me and what I want to do, I want to put the focus on others. I want to give others a stepping stone to jump to. I want to help them realize their not alone in what they face. I want to introduce the idea that they are capable, even when the odds are against them. And when they fail, I want to let them know that failure is good. It teaches you even more than any success every could. With no mistakes to learn from, we have no guidance in our futures.
Not only do I want to support them, I want to be more brutally honest with them. I want to remind them that it won’t be easy. That it’s going to suck so bad that they will probably have to let go of a few things to do it. That even though something they did was pretty darn awesome, that they could have done a few things a little better. I want to be able to push others a little bit more with the truth.
I know that through helping others with a sincere and honest heart that I will grow. It’s inevitable. There is nothing greater I would like to do this year than to be a helping hand to someone. It’s not about the payoff anymore because honestly, I don’t need one. I’m already one damn lucky man.
