Why II

In my previous column I wrote about what drives me, passion, curiousity, and inspiration. It's interesting after writing it I listened to an interview with David Quammen about his recent book on Charles Darwin. In the interview he cited two characteristcs which describe great scientist, and he quotes one saying, "I'm passionately curious." - Albert Einstein.

Anyway, having passion is one thing, getting something done is another matter. To accomplish what your heart decides, you need three other characteristics. These are motivation, discipline and patience. And you ask, what for if you have passion, curiousity and inspiration? Well, you can have those, but still accomplish little except a lot of feelings.

Passion is what makes you want to do something and motivation is what gets it done. You need both to see you through. Discipline is what keeps you going through all the problems, delays, setbacks, periods of doubt and brick walls, to just keep focused on the goals. And patience, with yourself, reality and the events helps work through the bad and down times. Sometimes you just have to persevere, and patience is what makes it happen.

I can't say I've been the best example of any of these, it's always easier to say somemthing than do something, and because of intermittent problems with my Dysthymia, a nice excuse at times, things don't always get done on time or done the way it was originally planned or intended. Sometimes, however, it's proven a God-send where patience during the breaks helps see things differently and find new ways, perspectives or ideas. Oh, really, you ask?

Well for one, my Website was originally intended for my photography, which has languished of late because of other things in life and learning Photoshop CS2 along with scanning slides, color management, printers and printing, color management, image management, images for monitor, print and Web, and color management? In short, I grossly underestimated the learning curve and time for this, and am relearning time management. Did I forget color management?

Why color management? In photography it's all about color management. All the feelings and characteristics are necessary to learn it. As a good friend says, "It's all about pink Flamingoes." And to understand all of photography you need all of it, the passion and motivation to look, see and do, the curiousity and discipline to continue beyond the obvious, and the inspiration and patience to be kind to yourself when it's not going well.