It’s Sunday afternoon. My husband just called (he’s out of town visiting family) to ask what I am doing.

“Working”, I said.

“Are you seriously still sitting at the counter in front of your computer? Have you moved from there since I left?” he asks.

“Of course I have.”…. It’s the truth. Although the whole truth is that no, I haven’t left this spot for long (other than to shower, eat, feed and play with my dogs for a bit, and sleep) — and he’s been gone for 4 days.

“I don’t know how you do it. You’ve got to make some time for yourself. It is the weekend after all”, he replies.

But here’s the thing… this is time for me. This is time that I thoroughly enjoy. This business is me. And there’s always more to do, to learn, to test, to play with, to shoot, to send, to follow-up on, etc. The process of building a business is long, tedious, time consuming, detailed, and frankly, never ending. But it is also exciting, creative, challenging, and fun! Or, IMO, it should be anyway. I mean, I spent years of my life building businesses that (albeit successful) never fit those descriptives, at least not for me.

Now, here, today, I know that the photography business I am building is a reflection of my passion, my creativity, myself. How do I know it’s my passion? I read somewhere that you know you’ve found your passion when you will pursue it despite what it may cost you. It’s what you are willing to sacrifice for. It’s what you will spend your time and money on, and forgo sleep and vacation for. It’s what you spend hours upon hours, and days upon days obsessing over. It’s what you can’t stay away from. That’s your passion. And if your work is not your passion, then your passion is what will take you away from your work. You will rush through everything else to get back to it. It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve managed to make my passion my work.

And so here I sit, with my notebooks, and calendar, and checklists, and contracts, and coffee!, and Larabar. (Confession #1… I’ve forgotten to eat a few times over the past few days. Thank goodness for healthy snacks! And confession #2… I am jonesing to be on a shoot instead of on the computer. But it is July in Phoenix, so a climate controlled indoor workstation is the next best thing.) And I am perfectly happy. Because I know that everything I am doing today will have an effect tomorrow. (Well, maybe not tomorrow, or the next day…. but someday down the road.)

And I LOVE it. Everything about it.  🙂