January letter: 💜 On moving beyond perfectionism & embracing authenticity
(This is my January letter to my mailing list. Sign up for future emails here.)
Hey friends,
Hope you're doing well and have been able to take 2024 at your own pace so far.
I LOVED how many more “it's mid-winter, people!!” antidotes to the “new year new you” message I saw on the internet this year, so refreshing!
This last few weeks I've been reflecting on how we seem to circle around life-lessons again and again. The theme for me returns to perfectionism; around how I show up in my business, manage my time, promote my offerings, and make art.
Finding ways to move through perfectionism is something I've written about in regards to my personal creative work quite a lot. When it arises in other areas, I try to remember and apply those lessons and tools!
Real-time connection in the online spaces I participate has been a balm lately. On these group calls I've been reminded by how, in others, it is their vulnerable shares that help me relate to them. That their ‘I haven’t quite got it all together today' is endearing, resonant, inspiring. That all the ways they are honest and ‘imperfect’ is what allows me to trust them, is what makes them so very human. It makes me feel more at home in the world and safer to be myself too.
Healing and relief come when I ‘admit defeat’ against perfectionism, remember again and again, like waking up from a bad dream, that for me, it's about connection over perfection.
I heard the phrase ‘we teach what we need to learn’ a long time ago. As a personal brand photographer supporting my clients to show up authentically and be seen as themselves at their best (while growing up as a self-employed person, navigating my own fears, imposter syndrome and self doubt), this has rung true over and over!
It can be so much easier to see the best in others while being our own worst critic!
All this ‘way-finding’, these conversations, and the work I do with my clients helps me recognise; I am not alone on this path, untangling from the traps and illusions of getting it ‘right’, and allowing a fuller, more authentic expression to come through. Authentic representation and visibility is what I support my clients around so often with their photos (and for well over a decade now!) but it's also what I seem to need to be reminded of regularly too. 😅
I’m inspired by the possibility of a world where we each stay aligned to our truth more of the time, know our magic, and see the breadth of humanity in one another.
With love,
Becky
P.S. If you know it's time to bring more YOU to your photography and give your brand a refresh, I would love for us to explore that together! Book a call with mehere & we'll dream into the most powerful images for your next chapter. You can learn more about the process, or read what my clients have to say too, if ya fancy!
3 helpful things to share with you this month…
The pressures of social media, the bombardment of what we see other biz owners doing, and of course the photos they use can have us questioning and comparing, stifling our authenticity and moulding ourselves into the supposed ‘right’ way. This does not honour the channel we are for what really wants to come through. It is our realness and uniqueness that makes us resonant and interesting, and helps the people who are a great match to find us! Here are 6 tips to help us stay aligned to our own unique expression (for our next photo-shoots, selfies & videos!)
Hosted by the incredible Nisha Moodley, I have been so grateful to attend this workshop over the past three years and I highly recommend it. This session is a deep and expansive space to reflect and dream; into what we would like for ourselves, our communities and the world. Nishas wisdom and guidance is something I am so gtaeful for. I’ve always found this session to be stirring, enlightening and powerful. (I am not affiliated, I just really want to share!)
I loved this though provoking ep from the brilliant Simone Grace Seol. #1 and #9 were the most resonant for me! (Def a good listen for the recovering perfectionists among us!) I so appreciate Simone’s perspectives and teachings; full of wisdom, inspiration, realness and ethics.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
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Let's keep in touch! Find me on Instagram @beckyruiphoto.