Think Different. Act Different. BE Different.

JennyGG, a very talented and well sought after Seattle-based wedding photographer made this tweet a few days ago.  I had read something similar to that a long time ago and it has always stuck with me.  The phrasing I know is this:

To get what you've always gotten, do what you've always done.

Pretty simple yet somewhat profound for an aphorism.  I've always read this in the contra positive - that is that what I've always gotten is something I don't really want to be getting or at least I'd like to be getting something different. Realizing this is a kind of harbinger of change or at least a recognition that something needs to change. And really that something can be anything about your life: the nature of your relationships with other people, your general outlook on life, or even the kind of work you do and how you go about doing it.

In trying to change my life both personally and professionally (especially professionally) I've been talking to people about the nature of business and how they do whatever it is they do.  It's part of expanding my posse.  It's one thing to talk to others who are in the same position as you are but I think it's much better if you can talk to people who are where you want to be. 

Then today I came up with my own little aphorism:

Think Different. Act Different. BE Different.

At the root of any action - positive or negative - are your thoughts.  They really affect how you see yourself, how you see the world, and how you act. Think negatively, act negatively -- voila you're a negative person.  Think in a rut, act in a rut, be in a rut.  Or vice versa think positively... etc.

One of the problems I see about becoming a professional photographer isn't necessarily that it's a competitive field.  It's that in this case competitive to me means there is an ocean of fish trying to swim the same direction and if you want to swim you better follow everybody else.  In the case of photography that's get a book, pound the pavement, send out fliers and mailers, write a blog, blah, blah, blah.  How am I supposed to get noticed doing this?  I have no idea.  

The hardest part is to come up with the idea of something different.  This idea doesn't have to be revolutionary or earth shattering.  It just has to be the "a-ha" to get you moving along a different path.  It's something I'm trying to figure out this very instant.  I certainly don't have a concrete answer to what I might do differently.  The most important part here is that I'm asking myself to think differently than I have in the past and hopefully different than most others are thinking now.  It might seem silly, but I'm thinking about thinking differently.  I can only hope for the momentum and the luck to actually have the process come to fruition.  Because when one starts thinking differently, it starts one down the path to actually being different.

And maybe if you start thinking differently and acting differently you can finally stop getting what you've always gotten and get something you actually want.