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I recently celebrated my 40th birthday with a trip to Iceland and took the time out to look back over my journey to date. In this video I share some thoughts about why mastering anything takes a great deal of time, and how we should expect things to shift and change along our journey. I hope it helps you along your own path.
Share it on if you found it helpful.
Links to things mentioned:
Interview with Penn Jillette:
‘Mastery’ by Robert Greene:
‘Falling Upward’ by Richard Rohr:
Music:
‘Before Dawn’ by On Earth
‘Hljoฬรฐ af Vindi’ by SVVN
All music is sourced from Music Bed. Check out their membership plans (affiliate link):
#photography #iceland #mastery
Another wonderful video Sean! I have only recently started photography in my mid 50โs ๐ฑ, I may not have time to get that โshot of a lifetimeโ, but I think itโs more important to find out what I want to communicate through photography and aim to get as close to that as possible. Your videos are great inspiration and so beautifully filmed. Thank you ๐
Beautiful work again. I look forward to the quotes you choose for every video. It's refreshing to think about a wider view on life with you.
Focus. If you scatter your finite energy in many things it will not happen or will happen slowly without intensity. If someone wants to be immortal on something he/she should pinpoint a single task and devote their entire vital energy to that task.
Inspirational and motivating, you see if photography becomes a banned substance! You still have your voice to help others on their life journey.
It seems fitting that I should discover and watch this video not when you posted it on your birthday, but three days after my 70th birthday. A lot of what you say has been true for me over the last several decades as I have reviewed my life and taken my own steps. Many of the turns I've taken have been more by happenstance than choice, though there have been some important choices along the way. Within the US culture dedicated to goal-setting and single-minded determination, this has been an anomaly, but my results have been quite satisfactory. After a professional life dominated by the word (writing, editing, reading, memorizing lines), I decided to put the focus of my retirement on photography. I have learned much from your and other videos on how to take better pictures, and I will continue to do so. In your case, though, I have found more enjoyment from your more philosophical ponderings, both as confirmation of what I have already been doing and as things to consider as I progress. On the topic of mastery, there is an excellent booklet by George Leonard called Mastery, which came out in the 90s (or 80s). He was (is) a sports writer and a practitioner of aikido, and from his practice of that martial art, he talked about the importance of working the plateau. By that, he says, you learn more from consistently working the skills at one level rather than trying to push yourself to the next level before you're ready for it. When you do move up to that next level, you need to work that one consistently and patiently rather than forcing yourself up to the next. It's an attitude that I have tried to remember as I have sought to learn new skills, and your birthday video was a nice reminder to get back to that thinking. As always, thanks for your insights.
Some people wonโt forget you and the words you speak.
Stay happy
Thank you Sean! I am struggling to devote the time to Photography that I would like because family that I care about need my time and attention more. I am proud to be a Photographer with a Day Job. I am also proud to be a part of a community of creative people who contribute to the world with their creativity. Best wishes to all – may the light always be where you need it! Thanks to all Steve
thanks for the inspiration …….
Wish you satisfied beautiful life ahead
Love
@Sean, thanks for the inspiration!โค๐ I'm 50 years old and definitely feel I'm at a crossroad. I'm not even close to where I thought I'd be career wise or financially. Best things in my life now are my family. I need to make a drastic change. I'm hoping beginning this photography/ videography journey is it! โ
I fully agree with the statement below by The New Travel – this content of yours is so rich and inspiring and the photos you create have made me want to work to get better. What started out as wanting to take better progress photos of my interior design projects has now become so much more. Thank you for this and all your insight – it's priceless.
Would love more of this content Sean. Itโs more important than any technical photo course Iโve taken.
Appreciate your self-honesty. and kind delivery. Thank you
Thank you…this Is a great piece of advise…much appreciated…
I so enjoy listening to your videos. It reminds me of what is important. Thank you.
Man your videos really speak to me and I'm sure many others. Appreciate it loads
Man I got chill bumps watching this, such a peace to the way you present your truths. Happy Birthday and may GOD continue to shine and lead you through your change!
Great video Sean. I started following you because of your โhow toโ photography videoโs. However, I think I like your more psychological / philosophical videos even better. Itโs good to realize life, or becoming a photographer is a journey. And if you are on a journey, itโs best to enjoy it. Even the smallest steps. Carry on the good work. Best regards, Erik
Right now I just came to that conclusion, that when I am gone, my work will no longer "be". I have two granddaughters but grew up without a maternal grannie. She died when I was 3. Getting to 60 made me realise how much more I would have wanted to know about her, and the lack of knowledge floored me for a while. So I want to leave something behind for my granddaughters, should they ever want to know me better. No guarantee for that as I live in Amerika and they live in Belgium. So I don't get to see them as much as I like… I am not the grannie living around the corner so to speak. I did realize though that my whole stock of 400.000 images (no kidding) will be useless, and nobody will trail through that amount of stuff… In the last two years I have been working on culling, big time. Cul, cul, cul. I did hear you say that my work might not be earth shattering, and while that is ok for you, I am not there yet. I would like to make a little bit of difference at least for some people, leave a little of a legacy… O, I think that you are a terrific photographer with insight, I just giggled when I read that you at one time was a priest. Well done. And I wished that learning photography would go quicker… At the tempo it goes now I will be 80 before I know something… (btw, my insta is photocat24, because in one of your earlier movies today you said that we should share too… ) Keep up the good work! Love your video's.
As a science affectionado, Thomas Edison's name thrown in with the masters hurt just a teeny bit.
Happy really belated birthday! I have shared your channel with my friends because you have a great talent for story telling and photography. Keep it up!
I'm not crying, you're crying.
More wise words as always. Thank you for sharing your struggles and your successes. Enjoy your journey.
Great quote by JP. It's a crutch to constantly look at other people to compare yourself to, when the true measure of progress is against yourself. And you hit the nail on the head — people think an artist's journey should be focused, but if you want to have something interesting and worthwhile to say, you need to not only learn how to say things, but actually have something worthwhile to say. This comes through life. And the more you do "life", the more you realize how similar different facets of it are and can effectively cross-apply principles. Creativity for example — it's all kind of the same. Whether you're cooking, composing, writing a book or taking a photograph, it's all the same: the recipe must be good/the initial musical idea must stand on its own/the premise must be interesting, the ingredients must be of good quality/the structure and parts must stand alone/you must have interesting characters and events, etc. And ultimately all of the greatest works in these mediums both tell an interesting story and are aesthetically pleasing, or at least interesting — this goes back to beauty as taught by Aristotle. The world is saturated with an obsession with veneer, whether it be over-editing and filtering photos, thick production and polish to cover up a lack of musical and compositional competence, or flavour enhancers to cover up the cheapness of food. None of it substitutes craft.
I'm also sorry you were met with so much intellectual resistance in ministry. I'm South African (I thought your accent didn't sound "truly" English, it sounded familiar somehow), and I too am unfortunately familiar with the issues in the Dutch Reform movement. I think a lot of it has to do with South African culture, actually — there's still a hint of authoritarianism lingering (or at least there was), and this manifested itself heavily in education and the church, emphasizing rules over personal growth, humility and relationship. During my studies in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy I came to a crisis of faith at a certain point, and reasoned that if any of this was valid or worthwhile, it should hold up to close scrutiny. Some years of studying philosophy (particularly Aquinas and Aristotle) brought me around again, although far away from Dutch Reform.
Happy Birthday Sir!! Thanks for share all your knowledge and experience.
Inspire. Encourage. Provoke. Lover of Big Cats, Priest and Photographer. Thank you for demonstrating that this is a long and arduous journey to hone our skills and craft. But its rewards and the friendships made along the way, with camera in hand, is life enhancing. Belated Happy birthday and condolences to your wife on her loss…
You should really have set studied philosophy instead of pshycologi
But seriously Sean, you are a great youtuber, a great narrator and probably a great photographer but one thing that really stands out for me and probably the rest of your fan base is your ability to make us think. To inspire us, to motivate us and most of all to make us think about all the small thing that is so important in our life.
You know what? To hell with all of these motivational videos on the internet. You are one of the greatest source for motivation that I have ever found
Oh and by the way have a great birthday!
Pure motivation. Thanks, Sir!
I'd like to say that your line of work means a lot for me as it is both inspiring and satisfatory to watch. You can count with me supporting your channel from March on as I will be moving to Ireland to pursue my dreams. I really appreciate what you're doing here. Thank you a million! Greetings from Brazil.
Belated Happy Birthday to you. Thank you for this video in particular – it's more loaded with insight than usual – with good reason. The landmark birthdays tend to do that to one. I hope others see and appreciate how much of yourself you lay out for us viewers. I have been learning so much from you – your introspection as much as your photography. Thank you.
Really appreciated …and thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
They help to keep on working hard ๐
Wise words, my friend
Very sage advice from a young man. I just watched it for a second time after having a few months to reflect on some of the things you said that resonated with me then and it was better on the second viewing, especially the point of mastering something worthwhile might only be 500 hours away.
What I guy. I thought there was a reason I come to this channel. Be friends with change. There's the lesson I got.
What an inspiration video!
Hi Sean๐ love your channel, inspiring, sincere , thought provoking but most of all, honest. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ๐
I went through a few of your videos, and I learned a lot in terms of photography techniques, but I realized that your videos go way beyond the photography world. Your content Sean is wonderful and very thought-provoking, it is incredibly enjoyable. Thank you for this more than amazing content. Happy birthday sir.
So inspirational ๐๐ป