Birthdays and Bucket Lists

Its my birthday. 

How about that? 

Its a big one guys. 

So big in fact, that I'm having trouble getting my head around it. 

Four. Zero. 

How thats even possible I'm not sure, because I still pretty much feel like an 18 year old most of the time (especially when I think about people I went to highschool with....they can't be turning 40 this year too can they?!?!) 

I'm not going to pretend that my feelings about all of this are figured out and that I'm super chill and awesome about this new milestone. They say it's all downhill from here, but honestly I feel like I'm still climbing. Still pushing boulders up hills in excitement for whatever might be at the top. 

But let's not get too deep here and instead lets look at some cake. 

Turningforty

Since I'm a huge nerd list maker I thought this would be as good a time as any to finally write out a photography/business bucket list. And to be even more cheesy, I'm going to write 40 things on this list. See what I did there? Sooo brilliant I tell ya. How do you guys stand it?

Ok here we go! (in no particular order)

  1. Shoot a double exposure
  2. Shoot a romantic shot in the rain using flash
  3. Shoot a proposal
  4. Shoot on a ferris wheel, ski lift or rowboat
  5. Shoot a wedding in a European country
  6. Shoot a destination wedding in a tropical country
  7. Speak at a local or national photography or business conference
  8. Start a podcast
  9. Write a blog post on a national or large audience blog
  10. Be featured in a national wedding blog
  11. Take a self portrait every day for a month
  12. Shoot a wedding or session in at least 25 different states (four down, 21 to go) 
  13. Sell a piece of artwork 
  14. Hire an assistant
  15. Grow my mentorship/coaching program
  16. Create resources and community for introverted creatives and photographers
  17. Host a workshop for those same people 
  18. Teach a photography class to high school kids or young adults
  19. Shoot a session in NYC
  20. Shoot an awesome light painting or fireworks shot
  21. Have a photo place in the top 3 in a photo contest
  22. Shoot an in-home engagement session
  23. Create a resource library for budding photographer entrepreneurs
  24. Shoot an engagement session with a dog(s)
  25. Host a series of webinars
  26. Be published in a magazine
  27. Grow my email list to 1000+ subscribers
  28. Shoot a wedding on top of a mountain
  29. Shoot a wedding on a beach
  30. Shoot a ridiculously amazing sunset 
  31. Publish a blog post that goes viral
  32. Book a wedding through instagram
  33. Have Paul join me in my business when he is done with the Army
  34. Create a 6 figure income with my business so we can give back
  35. Attend a Creative Live session in person (in Seattle) 
  36. Shoot a wedding in Seattle and Albuquerque
  37. Shoot a session at the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque
  38. Shoot a surprise wedding
  39. Do one creative personal photography project per year
  40. Continually learn and continually teach (<---I know thats not really something I can cross off, but it's something I want to strive for!) 

GUYS. That was hard!! I really started slowing down with the ideas around 25. But it was a great exercise to go through to really consider what's important to me and what I'd love to do with this little business 'o mine going forward! You should consider writing up your own photo or business bucket list if you haven't yet!! 

Now...it's time for cake and whatever else Paul has in store for me today! Yippeee!