Measuring Your Success- What Is Your Benchmark
For a change of pace, I wanted to do something different and share a message I heard in church on Easter. This idea of our benchmark for success really spoke to me, and I hope it speaks to other creatives. LifeCreated was born out of the idea that all life is created with purpose and with creativity and detail.One of my favorite ways to show that is through photography! I know sometimes it is hard to be confident and feel noticed, but thankfully, we can inspire each other along the way.
"Benchmark" is defined (by Google) as being "a standard or point of reference against which things may be compared or assessed."
The Science-loving side of me loves this definition. I think back to the labs I had in college, we always had a number or rule we followed as a baseline to measure our results by. In experiments you have a constant...a starting point that would determine the value of all other data that you calculated. Without a "benchmark" in a test, you have no way of knowing what had changed, whether it be a decrease or increase.
Did you know photographers often calibrate their screens to certain settings for viewing and ordering prints of their image? Without calibration, the end result may come out distorted.
In our daily lives, we probably have a mental scale we weigh things on, deciding if something is a good or bad choice. We measure people in our minds and often have standards we use to judge ourselves.
Somewhere in our early ages, we came up with a hierarchy in our minds for those who may be more "important" than us. We gave our power to another person, or we envied someone for their better abilities in sports or whatever it was we had an interest in.
Maybe we looked to celebrities for style/fashion, or wanted to be just like our favorite {fill in the blank} as we grew up.
We might think there is someone that does something better than we ever could. We think our friends have better marriages, better behaved kids, cleaner kitchens. What makes something "better"? It is all determined by our benchmark!
If we are honest with ourselves, we discover that we are all flawed. Comparing ourselves to other flawed people just doesn't make sense.
Other moms are making mistakes just like we are. Other business owners may struggle behind the scenes, while you think they have it all down. Don't let your measurement of success be reliant upon others.
If we trust in God's value of us, we would be headed in the right direction. We can follow and trust that He has made us with certain gifts. His opinion of us should be our benchmark.
If He is our benchmark, there is never anyone that is more or less of a success than we are. We can be relieved of the need to "measure up".
To think that we may never try anything new, or believe in ourselves enough based on our benchmarks is sad. There is so much we were made for!
Before I leave you, I wanted to share a few of the shots I have taken over the past few weeks, in case you hadn't seen them yet. March & April we are practicing our process shots, and May will have a new list for the #lifestyleddetails challenge. If you have an interest in photography, don't be afraid to join us.
Have a great week everyone <3
