I’m not exactly sure what I did in a past life to be so blessed as to have this creative gift.

When I first contemplated moving from an office job to an interactive, creative, physical job, I had rewire my brain. There were a lot of “truths” that I had never challenged, because, well, they were true to me.

These were those things:
1. Career success = sitting behind a computer from 9 – 5 (at least).
2. Ultimate career success = managing a team of people.
3. Making a living from an enjoyable and creative endeavor = eternal poverty and struggle.
4. Working on your feet or with your hands isn’t real work.
5. If you were meant to be an artist, someone would notice your gifts and tell you so.
6. If it comes easily to you, it’s a hobby, not a job.
7. Work is not fun.

I read a book called the Four Hour Workweek (highly recommended – terrible title, great lessons), and while I currently work the Forty-Eight Hour Workweek, one thing the author said sticks with me: The worst job is one that is just tolerable. If you hate your job, you’re motivated to change. If you’re happy with your job, you’re in a good place. If your job is just tolerable, you’ll marinate there forever, without the fire beneath you to go out and find what really fills you.

Before starting Stacey Vaeth Photography, I was in the wrong field. I was in many perfect jobs, for someone else. In most of my jobs, there came a time of working there wherein the clock ticked by, minute by minute. I waited till the end of the day, dreaming for my life to begin when I got home. Envisioning the run I would go for, the painting I would paint, the garden I would plant.

I would get home, exhausted, and turn on the TV and turn out the creative light within. And wake up the next morning and do it all again.

Inner searching on my own and with friends, I began to redefine my “truths”. This is what I came up with:

1. The happiest I had ever been at work included: working on a farm; stocking the shelves at a grocery store; being a plant lady (watering plants around town); and being a Peace Corps volunteer. In other words, physical jobs that kept me on my toes. Physical work is where it’s at, for me.
2. There’s a lot of talent in the world. You have to be your own advocate.
3. You’ll always be better than some and worse than others. You will not arrive on the creative scene with it all figured out. Do it anyway, despite possible humiliation.
4. People want you to be happy and to succeed.
5. Work is where we spend the majority of our waking hours. Until we figure out how to have the four-hour workweek, those hours should not only be fun, but should be fulfilling.
And the big one:
6. God doesn’t give gifts away easily. We’re each here with something to share with the world around us.

I was doing the job that paralleled my idea of what success was. I was doing the job that my peers were doing. My gift from God of creativity seemed too fun, to easy. By doing a creative job, I would be selfish and lazy. This sounds harsh now, but this was what I thought. When I finally understood that by NOT doing what I was given as a gift, I was doing wrong. I was denying myself and those around me of something that could have been.

So that’s where this company and my current life began. Every day that I get to make new friends, capture true emotions and important moments and share those with others. What a blessing. Now, back to work behind my computer 🙂

Some pretty pictures from this weekends’ mini sessions to reward you for reading this far.