How Becoming An Amateur Photographer Improved My Writing
“When people are asked to choose from a list the best description of how they feel when doing whatever they enjoy doing most — reading…”
“When people are asked to choose from a list the best description of how they feel when doing whatever they enjoy doing most — reading, climbing mountains, playing chess, whatever — the answer most frequently chosen is “designing or discovering something new.”
― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
For how long have you been working in your career? Years? A decade or two?
It takes practice, consistency, and discipline to achieve mastery at anything. However, as we refine our processes and skills and learn what works, we risk falling into complacency. We’re in danger of getting stuck in our routines, no longer trying different solutions and asking questions. Consequently, our creativity suffers and our opportunities to learn decrease.
It wasn’t until 2021 that I started pursuing photography more seriously as a hobby. And the experience of becoming a beginner as an adult has been eye-opening, with benefits to my writing process, my mental health and my relationship with work.
In this article, you’ll find out how embracing a beginner’s mindset can help you get unstuck, rediscover your creativity, and improve your mental health.
Embrace new possibilities
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
If you do anything long enough, the activity becomes fixed. You have a proven system and expectations about the results. And the process may even turn the activity into a habit — something you do automatically, without giving it much thought.
This isn’t entirely negative, though. Systems reduce the number of decisions to be made and help achieve consistent results. But they also eliminate the need to question, explore, and learn. If you systematise creative tasks, you might find the quality of your work suffers.
The solution? Become a beginner again. As a beginner, you’re back to being mindful about what you do, questioning yourself more, and staying receptive to new ways of doing things.
In my work, I’ve had to develop a process to consume, record, and retrieve information to write content.
There are benefits to having a system. I’ve found it reduces the chances of second-guessing myself and slowing down my writing. But it also reduces the opportunities of discovering new ways of writing, experimenting with new topics and styles, and even daring to be a little more vulnerable.
With a beginner’s mindset, I’m forced to ask questions about my work. Can I compose this image better? Are my settings right? Would this shot improve if I try again with a bit of motion blur?
The beginner’s mindset has shown me the difference between questioning myself and second-guessing myself. Questioning is asking if I can do something differently; second-guessing is doubting my own capabilities. When I stop second-guessing myself, I’m open to looking at my work in a new light and embracing the possibilities of change.
Face your fears
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young
Fear of failure, rejection, and ridicule keeps many adults from taking risks. The better you are at your job and the higher you climb the career ladder, the higher the stakes and the bigger the audience. And so, you hold on to what you know because it works.
For many, the process of fear of rejection starts at school. Over time, it can take away the pleasure of learning by equating failure with shame. Students learn to avoid mistakes. But to learn and improve, you need to fail. A lot. School May Have Killed Your Passion for Learning. Here’s How to Rekindle It.
Until recently, my freelance writing career was full of what-ifs. What if my writing sucks? What if I can’t do it? What if my clients see me as I see myself? So far, I just powered through these feelings of insecurity and self-defeat without overcoming them.
As contradictory as it may sound, since I started posting my photography on Instagram, it became easier to deal with my perfectionism to focus on the process of learning instead. I’ve discovered that getting it right is not as important as trying, failing, learning, and doing it again.
Whatever your job is, going back to a beginner’s mentality will help you embrace failures as lessons and lose the fear of making mistakes in public. Your work will only improve because of it.
Reclaim your creativity
“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
The more familiar we get with an activity, the more ingrained preconceived notions
This makes work quick and efficient. Stopping to examine your task, ask questions and consider other solutions takes time and extra effort. But this can make the quality of your work suffer.
Psychologists call this functional fixedness — a cognitive bias that limits your brain to think about an object in one fixed, specific way. This shortcut, while efficient, impairs creative problem-solving.
I can’t say I have a defined photographic style. I’m trying my hand at different topics and editing styles. And if I take enough photos, sooner or later I’ll find a way to create images that convey what I want to say.
As a former in-house advertising and marketing copywriter and now a freelancer working with clients, most of my work involves writing for other people. So, when the time came to write my own articles and copy, I realised I didn’t know what my voice was until I adopted a beginner’s mindset and approached the process of discovering my voice with fresh eyes.
Returning to a beginner’s mindset can give you the freedom to start your work from scratch, transform it, and find unique ways to solve old problems.
Get rid of cognitive distortions
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.”
— Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose”
Functionally fixedness has another downside — it solidifies cognitive distortions that may hold you back.
Cognitive distortions are “thought patterns that cause people to view reality in inaccurate — usually negative — ways.”
For instance, all-or-nothing thinking is a common cognitive distortion. It causes us to think in black and white terms. If something’s not perfect, it sucks. If you only did part of your work, your day was a complete waste. This polarisation prevents you from evaluating your work in realistic terms and robs you of the satisfaction of the progress you’ve made.
A beginner’s mindset challenges the notion that things should be a certain way and gets us comfortable with imperfection.
The takeaway
You can rediscover your beginner’s mindset by adopting a new hobby, but it’s not the only way. Mindful meditation, asking questions, and listening with attention can take you back to a place of openness and non-judgement that nurtures curiosity and creativity.
With a beginner’s mindset, you’re in a much better place to face your fears, reclaim your creativity, and eliminate the cognitive distortions that are holding you back. All it takes is one step toward embracing something new.
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