Discouraged much?

Lately, I've been so busy that I've barely had time for some of my favorite online photography communities - the hideout, clickinmoms,  flickr, & deviantart . So the last few days I've been trying to find time to visit each, if only for a few minutes. The support is amazing, the resources invaluable, and I love to be able to pass on as much as I learn. But returning after the short time away I noticed a pattern in each of the different communities. Over and over I see photographers posting about how discouraged they are, whether it be with their work, their lack of clients, or with the orders. It got me thinking about how personal we tend to take our businesses. I don't necessarily mean photographers specifically... artists for sure, but business owners in general. We're putting ourselves out there with our own product, service, or talent so we tend to take criticism and perceived failures to heart. In our case, we aren't pushing someone else's product or service, but laying ourselves on the line personally. Its easy to get discouraged, for any of the above reasons.

What I often read, or hear is either, I don't know if I have what it takes to do this, OR, once they are started, I don't know if I should keep at this. The thing is, we all get discouraged - we don't get the job, the promotion, or some personal goal we had set out to achieve. What matters is how we react to that.

Learn from it! Part of what I know now, I only know from a previous mistake that I learned from. So you didn't nail it this time! It sucks! Definitely acknowledge the disappointment. But LEARN from it! Grow from it! Many successful people failed many, many times before succeeding. When we most tend to feel discouraged is in the learning process. If you're still learning, set backs are PART of that process. That just means there is more room for practice, experience and /or education. If you want it bad enough, you find what you can learn from the situation and push on! I'm not trying to say its easy. Just that we do have the power of that. Its up to US to keep going if we're going to succeed! We can sit back and watch it happen for other people, or we can work hard, and make it happen for ourselves. What will you choose?