Have you ever heard of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs? It’s a pyramid that describes the theory of human needs and motivations, and the order in which they need to be met. Here’s what it looks like:

Maslow’s theory postulates that the most basic of physiological needs, like food, water, and shelter, must be met before we can move on to the more advanced needs, like love, self-actualization, creativity. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If I were starving and unable to obtain food, I’m probably only thinking about finding a way to feed myself, rather than pondering the meaning of life. Make sense?

Here’s how I’ve found it applies to photographers, and creatives in general: As a new photographer, there are a few basic things everyone struggles with at the beginning. Here are just a few of those struggles:

• Mastering your camera settings
• Purchasing necessary equipment
• Finding new clients
• Establishing a legitimate web presence

All of those items would belong in tiers one or two of the pyramid, either physiological or safety needs. When you’re new, you’re so wrapped up in just trying to tread water that the concept of searching for the meaning of why you’re doing this in the first place? It doesn’t typically occur to you to ask that question. And if you DO ask that question of yourself, you probably settle for an easy answer like I did for the longest time- “I just love love.” Yes, doesn’t everyone? I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who didn’t enjoy the concept of love. That was an easy answer, a copout- I didn’t want to push any more than that because it required a lot of soul-searching, and I was being lazy.

Here’s the thing, though. As creatives, it’s part of our very nature to desire to create something that isn’t just visually pleasing, but that is emotionally, relationally significant. At first it might seem like enough to just produce pretty work, but the longer you do this, the more you’ll realize that “pretty” isn’t enough to satisfy you anymore. You want to create something significant. And in order to create significant work, I fully believe you must have a significant reason as to why you do what you do.

And here’s where things come full circle: stick around for a while and you’ll see so many photographers call it quits after just a few years. Why? Because they’re so tired of struggling with the aforementioned tier one and two issues that they never have a chance to break through the tier of self-actualization, creating significant work! So how can we avoid that same level of burnout? By learning to ask the right questions from the beginning. Here’s what I want you, dear creative, to think about:

• Why do I do what I do?
• No really, why? Don’t settle for an easy answer; that’s a copout, and you’re better than that.
• What really, truly inspires you? And think: does that thing actually inspire YOU? Or have you just seen other people be inspired by it, and you think it’s supposed to be what drives you as well?

One filter I’ve found especially helpful over the last few years is asking “Do I really want [fill in the blank]? Or do I just think I’m SUPPOSED to want it?” For example, the bubble necklace from JCrew that was so popular a couple of years ago. Remember that? There were several points in time where I was on the verge of buying one of those necklaces because I’d seen everyone else wearing them, but then I stopped myself and realized I didn’t actually even like the necklace in the first place!

How often do we do this with our work? We purchase a camera or lens we don’t actually need because we’re seeing other people do the same. We pose our clients in ways that don’t mean anything to use because we’re seeing other people do the same. We brand ourselves in disingenuous ways, we purchase things we don’t need, we write blogs about things that don’t actually matter to us because we see others doing the same. 

Do yourself a huge favor: stop looking at what everyone else is doing. Focus on honing your craft, learning to master tiers one and two, and never stop pushing on those questions above. Push for tier five from day one, and you will never have to settle for “just pretty” again.

PS- if you found this post insightful, give a listen to THIS podcast interview I just did with Sam Stroud- it goes hand-in-hand with what this blog post was all about!