Kickstart the New Year

I hope that you and your families had a wonderful, peaceful, and healthy holiday season. Traditionally this is the time when most people look at the year as a fresh slate and make resolutions. Once made, keeping them can be challenging. A couple of years ago we wrote about how to successfully keep your goals. Take a moment and read our blog for practical ideas that you can use.

One tool that can help you determine what you want to do this year is this creative technique that I stumbled across recently. I have used mind mapping in the past, but I hadn't used it for setting my New Year's goals. Try it, it is fun and can help you kickstart your year.

Most of us want to improve our minds and bodies. Camera Walking is an excellent way to do that. We love empowering you to get out moving to achieve better health, fitness, and creativity.

This year in addition to being healthier, I want to become a better photographer and storyteller. When I reflected on this, I realized that at the center was learning. Years ago I read a book, The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50. The author's research highlighted that learning was key to people's ability to thrive. It didn't matter whether they were learning how to play an instrument, becoming a more effective writer, or attempting to develop other skills, the main thing was that they were challenging themselves. And as Robert Greene, author of Mastery, said, “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.”

As I develop my skills, not only do I turn to workshops, books, and people to learn from, I also need to be willing to risk and make mistakes. When we try out new ideas, take different types of photos, or learn how to use software to process our images, we are stretching. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, but in the process of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone we learn. In fact recent research shows that when we push ourselves mentally and physically to do difficult things, we are helping our brains stay healthy.

So my wish for you this year is to embrace learning and experimentation to help you achieve your goals. It is worth the effort. If you are looking for more photo ideas, here is a printable calendar with daily "assignments" to give you a spark.

One last thing. Take a moment and watch this four year old. She has it down.