Spencer Lum on being a Beginner and Fear:
When you’re a beginner, the fear isn’t there, because the judgement isn’t there. You can play to your heart’s contentvia email by Spencer Lum.
Ever the Beginner. And maybe that is what you hide behind to justify your own Self Doubts and lack of apparent confidence in yourself.
[An aside] Another time to Let Go of Fear is when All is Lost (or Won). And it can be rewarding and exhilarating when you do.
Spencer Lum on Possibility and the Unknown:
Possibility is fueled by the unknown.The question is not whether it’s too much to give up your history. It’s whether you give up too much by holding on to it. How much of your future are you willing to sacrifice at the alter of the past?
via Don’t Trust Yourselves by Spencer Lum.
Spencer Lum on Vision, Dreams, Hopes and Purpose::
the moment we give up our vision in favor of the common and the accepted is the moment we lose touch with our dreams, hopes, and even our purpose. The things that make us the most human and the most powerful.
via What I learned from living my desperate life by Spencer Lum.
The whole point of life (*) is to figure it out for yourself. To love (*) the challenge (*) and live in the process (*). It can’t flourish in the light (*) of others. Comparison is the surest path (*) to bitterness (*) and grief (*). Explore (*). See your power (*). See what you can do. Success (*) is not being better than everyone else. It’s finding you.via Living the Better Life (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
Success (*) can be so much worse than failure (*). Failure (*) hurts, but it pushes us to keep exploring. Success (*), on the other hand, limits us. It tells us to keep doing the same.via How we Kill Creativity (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
When you live in the first person, you’ll experience fear and hesitation and that feeling in the pit of your stomach that you will not measure up. But for that, you will rip through the barriers that separate you from your future self. The one who exists on the other side, who has done what you wanted, knows what you wanted, and experienced what you wanted.via Multiple | Ground Glass (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
You will recover your dreams, you will recover yourself, you’ll take the hits, but as Sinatra said, you’ll know you did it your way.
So if you look at your own work, and you’re afraid to show it. If you look at your own self, and you’ve kept it walled off, don’t hold it back, don’t keep it safe. Don’t let it wither without seeing the light of day. Let it into the wild, and see what takes place. Your life is waiting.
Because the question is not whether fear is too high a price to pay. The question is whether fear is too much to give up.
Fear is a dark and menacing thing. It lurks in the shadows of our minds. Always hard to find, always waiting in the wings, never quite gone, never quite there.via Multiple | Ground Glass (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
But I’ll take it over security, any day.
Security is worse.
Fear accompanies all great things. It’s there in progress, change, and growth. It’s there when you shed your own skin. It’s there when you let yourself to become more.
You don’t own fear by forgetting it. Security is not fear vanquished. Security is settling for less.
Let fear be your guide. You fear when you care. You fear when you want. Really want.
Fear doesn’t tell you what to run from. Fear tells you what to run to. There is no fear that accompanies the unimportant. It is the most clear and vital indicator that something actually matters. [..]
The 90% point is deceptive. It feels like you’re nearly there. But you’re really just getting started. And if you don’t make the big push right then and there, you’re not doing the things you need to do to learn what you are really all about. It’s in the final 10% that all the good stuff happens.
Photography [Paddling] is one of those activities, where you’re as good as you allow yourself be.via Why I’m not going to WPPI (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
So many of the barriers are mental (*).
Most of the technique (*) just isn’t that hard.
But the openness (*) – the willingness (*) to see, to look, to learn (*) – that’s as hard as anything you’ll find.
To try, to dare (*), to live fearlessly (*)?
In a consumer-driven market, that’s harder than most things you’ll find.
Lasting inspiration (*) is crucial.
Waking up to challenge (*) each day is essential.
Our job should be an activity of the mind (*) and heart (*).
Art should. Business should.
What shouldn’t?
The trick isn’t finding passion. It’s harnessing it. [..]via The problem with passion (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
Things like passion (*), purpose (*) and belief (*) are great and wonderful things.
But they’re not guides. They are raw fuel.
Unprocessed and unrefined, they won’t take you where you need to go.
Fully utilized, they are unstoppable.
But you can’t just throw more passion at a problem.
The goal isn’t to break through walls. It’s to go around them.
Passion fuels progress. But progress fuels passion. [..]
Find a way to do what you do the best you can do it, and be sure to make yourself useful (*).
Human pictures aren’t pictures of people.to which he expands On Chaos (*) and On Understanding (*):
They’re pictures that mean something to people.
And there are as many ways to create them as there are pictures to take.
Take this crazy, complex, overgrown world of ours, distill it down to something, and you’ve done exactly what you’re supposed to do.via Taking Human Pictures (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
You’ve restructured a systemic chaos more complex than we’ll ever know into terms we, as humans, can understand.
The question isn’t what looks good.via Say what you mean and mean what you say (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
The question is what fits.
Are you building something?
Are you filtering through what works and what doesn’t and packing your pictures with connotation?
Or just showing what’s there?
In the simplest terms, get rid of the bad and keep the good.
You can spend a lifetime deciding on just what that means.
And that’s the beauty of photography.
The key is just to keep making those decisions.
When you look back at the end of it all, there’s really only one person you’ll have to answer to.[1] I was up early on the last day of camp. Went for a walk along where we trained. It was beautiful and calm and another water photo is added to my little collection (*). The early morning light was strong but even and the were ducks feeding amongst the reeds. A couple of fisherman were out with lures. They did not catch anything but I know they were just happy to be up early appreciating nature and the anticipation (*) of a bite. For me, as I walked and admired the view, there was the anticipation (*) of flying out, the next day, to the Busan (*) for the 2012 Asian Dragon Boat championships.
Yourself.
And if you never gave up, and you always kept pushing with the power of belief (*) behind the message you spread and the gift you shared, then you can hold your head high when you ask yourself what it was all for.
Because you’ll know you lived life. And life is a hell of a ride if you’re willing to get on.
[..] being yourself is your best shot.Why do I like Skulk? Maybe because he is not afraid to be who he is. Yes, that's what I like about Skulk.
It’s your best shot to take what you have and what you know and put it out there and get somewhere with it.
It’s your best shot to avoid regret.
It’s your best chance to make a mark in the world in a way that matters to you.
The 90% point is deceptive. It feels like you’re nearly there. But you’re really just getting started. And if you don’t make the big push right then and there, you’re not doing the things you need to do to learn what you are really all about. It’s in the final 10% that all the good stuff happens.A Big Thank You to all the Sydney based 2012 Auroras. The training is now done here in Sydney, though the journey continues and the final push starts - Brisbane this weekend and Busan (*) / South Korea the following week. Enjoy the final phases of preparation.
[..] if you’re willing to take a gamble, I’ll bet on you. If you’re willing to put it out there, if you’re willing to fail, if you’re willing to let go of it all, thumb your nose at the world, and do it your way, I’ll believe in you. You may not find what you want, but you’ll find what you need. Want is easily known, but need is a thing that only reveals itself in retrospect.I have thought a lot about belief (*) and self-confidence recently, particularly after my little speech (*). Often it takes some time to have the confidence to believe in one self. Initially, more than not, the belief comes from others, those who support and love you for who you are.
I would still like to think that I am still a believer. After all three steps forward and two steps back is still a step in the right direction.Thanks for believing Spencer.
Be willing to give up yesterday. Let go of [..] Stay out of your comfort zone. Make room for tomorrow’s you. Opportunity is limitless, but time is preciously limited. Don’t rest on laurels and past achievement. Let every day be its own. Because if it is all about journey, there really is no point of arrival, and there is no place to be. There is just getting up and giving it a go.From Forget the Destination. Love the Journey. (*) by Spencer Lum (*).
we’re so used to wanting everything easy, we forget the real value of hard [trying]. We’re so used to caring about the result, we forget the value of the process. Feeling good is more valuable than being good.From Learning to learn (*) by Spencer Lum (*)
Failure is the sound of a thousand wasted efforts screaming in unison. [..]
So the goal [..] should be to use those things that inspire us as a framework for exploration, so we can learn the process behind them.
Shots aren’t preordained.
They are happy accidents, lead by intention, and founded on a combination of preparation and discovery.
In other words, photography isn’t seeing the big picture.
It’s knowing how to stumble from one adjustment to the next, eliminating choices along the way, while focusing on others, until we find that one thing that says just what we want. [..]
Success is the sound of a single action made of a thousand efforts.
