Lessons

Lesson Info

Happiness and You

all right we're going to jump right in what we're going to do here is just do a little bit of discussion one more personal than photography but we're going to go that direction and then we're going to cut out and head to our sessions I should head to them head right there and get to work so welcome back you guys thank you very much for waking up today what'd you guys do last night getting trouble notice I look at you what did what did you do last night jeff fun I hope it's been really fun I'm so sad I could never go play but tonight we're all going to go out so hopefully we're gonna have a good time tonight um well I know we're gonna have a good time tonight after watching your facebook posts I know it's so very excited about that um this is my last official thank you for this class so thank you guys all for being here I do want to thank creative lie this has been a great event uh this is something that of course as a speaker when you come into these you have an idea of where it's goin...

g to go and then it always evolves and changes so it's definitely something that I really really have loved and thank you guys for tirelessly showing every day and giving me your energy because I feed off of you and I know it's been I know it's a long day for you so it's been a lot of fun and thank you for that and of course the biggest shout out has to go out to my staff helen is here uh brandon there he's here errands at home who I don't think aaron has slept in over a week so we should go blow up her face facebook page but yeah she doesn't use her but I mean it's because she is so meticulous if you guys had any idea how much time she puts into perfecting every slide that I show it's really quite amazing but there are many people I haven't mentioned like my moment dad and my kids and of course my entire staff and there's a lot of people out there that really helped me so that's the biggest thing is um I get a lot of credit for the things I do and the reality is I surround myself with really amazing people very loyal and I'm very very grateful for that so I do want to thank them one last big shout out time all right so let's go ahead and get started first of all I want to focus on you today I know that this is a photography seminar but I like to look a tw what we do as whole uh if you're not healthy if your mind's not healthy if your body's not healthy then it's very hard to be a successful photographer so we talk a lot about you balance and this is always that was sort of my belly's and babies last time sort of the big picture was everybody everybody asks me how do you balance everything you're so amazing you get you know they say things that are you know not really I'm honored that they say that but I'm like you know you should just come spend a day with me and we'll show you what balance really is because it's not like that I do not have a perfect life I haven't amazing life but I have to work very hard at it and there really isn't balance that doesn't exist in fact if you really think about it why would you want to be balanced balance is this why would you want nobody wants that so you have to keep that in mind that choice and sacrifice if you want something you have to go for we said yesterday that if you want to be successful you have to choose it you can't blame anybody if you don't make it not the millions of photographers not the way they're delivering their work it's it's really your choice the reason I'm here is I chose the path that I took and I had to sacrifice a lot to do that hindsight twenty twenty there's always going to be regret everybody has it so there's nothing you could do about it we could sit here and I could spend hours telling you everything I did wrong but it just goes without saying that I made mistakes you made mistakes and that's the way things go but there is something to be said about learning from other people's mistakes that definitely is something when somebody can share you know shortcuts and things like we did yesterday on you know why struggle so hard and that's really when I watched photographers and it's it's not that my way is the right way it's just that it works what I do works I mean you could see yesterday was busy but I wasn't killing myself honestly I really wasn't I mean it I if you really and we talked about that engagement if you really engage with the children you don't have to sweat like a crazy person you don't have to run around like crazy and remember we were on thirty minute twenty to thirty minute essentials there so in theory if I can do four sessions you know twenty to thirty minutes each then imagine if you had a whole hour and you were engaging the whole time how far you could take those sessions so so it's something that you know my goal is to help you not stress and to help you take a lot of that overwhelming oh great I have an eighteen month old you know it shouldn't be like that when you have an eighteen month old you should embrace them say okay well in eighteen months old is going to act like this this and this and I'm going to counter it with this this and this and you're going to get a curve ball every once in a while every once in a while I get a kiddo that I'm like that doesn't even make sent it's like we kind of had that yesterday our little one they just kind of barreled in it was like I'm ready you know that's not normal you know that's not the way things usually go but then on the other side of it our six year old was really shy which most six year olds are not they're usually pretty outgoing so it's it's it's something that you just have to kind of expect that things happen my question is how healthy are you if we weren't all to look at our own bodies and our own minds how truly healthy are you what is your daily routine uh what do you do to give yourself help all of us want to be around forever I think I mean nobody really wants to go but what are we doing to make that to assure to assure that that actually is the case the average life expectancy in the united states is seventy eight point two so obviously some live longer some live less nobody knows what's gonna happen you could be hit by a bus tomorrow but and I actually was looking at world averages I spend my time on the internet doing the weirdest things you know I really sat and thought about like I research the most bizarre things but I was looking at world life expectancies around the world and you know I mean they're pretty close thank heavens I think with with with modern medicine I think we've we're getting into a better position but you know you really think about that seventy eight point two if that's the case I've lived more than half my life and that's you know that's kind of sad it's kind of it kind of goes a lot faster than you wanted to so what can you do to extend your life if you really want to live longer then you have to start with your attitude attitude really is everything your way of thinking can not only impact the quality of your life but how long you actually live this is where I was spending my time last night as well I was reading about how do you live longer like is there really a method to living longer and it was really fascinating to me because health and diet do you play a big part in that butt attitude plays the biggest part in that if you believe you're sick you're sick if you believe you're healthy you're healthy if you believe that pain and your hip or leg is causing you so much angst you can't walk you can't walk I mean you look at some of the athletes and some of the people out there that have suffered incredible in injuries and managed to therapeutically get themselves back up and get themselves back to work and it's because they believe they can and they refused to accept no for an answer and I mean there's so many inspirational stories out there I could have you weeping like baby said this stuff I was literally last night just you know what I was thinking I just put all this in the show and just bring them to their knees you know but it not it's really not necessary because each of us have personal experiences that we can really relate to when it comes to that now what is happiness because it's funny last year it was about believe for me and it's always for my whole life it's been about believing yourself so that will never change however this year really my mantra has been happiness because I was trying figure out what is happiness like where does it come from how do we you know guys a couple of you share like what honestly if you could think of something that makes you happy somebody share what that would be spending time with my family spending time with your family what kind of time though I love taking my son to the park and playing with them just watching because it is he's too and at that age it is everything's so new and exciting his big word now oh wow mom you did it one person I would say that it used to be my children but now that they're teenagers they don't want to spend any time with mama doll I mean there you know to the mall with their friends or their girlfriends whatever so you know when I spend a good day alone and you know whether I'm guarding or working on photography or something like that and I didn't beautiful day outside you know I'm just smile all day so to me just be able to enjoy the journey you know and not worrying so much about the destination you know I make sure to live everyday to the fullest I think honestly happiness is the beach because my whole family loves the beach so this is yes the beach how could you not like it is water I'm a water sign my wife some water sign um the kids love it it's like how many six year olds I mean my son was two and he is he'd go up to the water and just get his feet wet and run away so I was like it's those things that just a little simple things you know what I think the beach so amazing is you can't take elektronik equipment there I really think it's the on ly place in the universe left that you can't take your laptop phones too if you take your phone you're gonna keep it in a baggie and keep it protected so you can't sit on it all day long and I find that that's why I love the beach to is that and I hate being without my laugh laptop if you ever if you know me I'm neurotic nobody touches it it doesn't leave my side and when I go to the beach I have to let it go so it's and and you're right it's just that total free free nous I think for me it's watching my kids with my husband so just kind of sitting back and just observing it also just at home I like my office overlooks our trampoline and I like to watch some out there bouncing got me she's already gone um well we don't have kids yet um but I think that I'm always happiest when I'm with my husband and I just when we're you know totally intend with each other and and not you know worried about money or fighting about anything and um especially when we're connected to our friends in her community and her church and you know when I really feel that that harmonious you know community around me awesome so it's interesting because it always seems to circle back to the people to whether it's your kids are gone but you still had to bring them in first just because you know that ultimately there's that direct direct connect and even though you don't have children you recognize that someday it will be you know that may be a part of your path so right now it's we cleaned to the people we love and for you even though you said beach you meant family and so and that's an you know and everybody gets that so it so it directly relates back to people and people make us happy and we talked last year about the bubbles we have and I guess it was this year I would say last year but I believe it was february which is another lifetime for me but you know we all live in these tiny little bubbles and they're very very fragile your bubble is typically your direct family contacts and once you're married and have children your bubble is typically your children your husband and then the secondary bubbles would be your parents your relatives or siblings outside of that would be your social groups and all of these bubbles actually you know how fragile bubbles are they all connect on dh then of course outside of that is's social groups and things like that so of course the interactions you have a direct connection to that love for your child where a complete stranger does not have that same emotional connection however most average humans would protect your child would help your child even though it's not there you know it's not a direct relationship so those bubbles are actually more connected than we actually realize for the most part humanity is is an incredible incredible thing the fact that people you know we're very lucky I'm so glad I'm not a mushroom or frog or something because I'm sorry you guys you to happiness well actually we wanted teo speak for the internet they read off some things from them so uh john ellis um let's see what makes me happy lima what makes me happy ice cream in bacon but you put them together you get nirvana yeah t tu es says road trips with the family makes me happy and single and says traveling and seeing all the awesome people on see how that's pretty cute anybody else well for me it's it's when I when I stop and realize that I am truly living in the moment whatever that may be it's like oh yeah wait I'm living that's awesome you for me michael pieces travel and playing beach volleyball I'd have to agree with him traveling for me is it's definitely something that I just like to experience different cultures and meet different people and experience places I have never been before so let's me too that's awesome that's really cool so yes I think and thank you everybody out there on the internet for sharing that as well because I think that that's something that sometimes when we start thinking about these things it's so simple it's really not a big time you know happiness is not something you achieve it something you just exist it's you said living in the moment and that's funny there's a book that I loved and one of the things that impacted me so much is here and now in fact because I think that's the hardest thing is living in the moment and realizing how lucky we are right now right this very moment everything your whole entire life brought you right here right now and it's crazy if you really think about the intersections the connections that we now have you know in any situation we would be there for each other because we have intersected and then when you mentioned travelling you know I travel all over and love to meet people but my favorite thing is probably much like huge seeing what happens the cultural the cultural side of it and you know when we go to other countries we eat everything you're not supposed to eat and we try everything you know and I paid dearly for that by the way you asked me about off a fourteen hour flight from china ones but it's because you want the reason I did it I went into I was in a very a remote area of china and these young ladies were so excited to have me that they were students and so they took me and to a restaurant and the chef was so excited he kept bringing food and bringing food and bringing food and he was so proud of what he had done and I knew I shouldn't eat and I knew that it wasn't gonna be because you know my system wasn't used that but there was no way I could say no because just the happiness that they had was worth the entire fourteen hour flight and the parasite and the eight weeks of mess it was so pretty someone but I wouldn't change it for the world you know want details on that when I promise you know what theo yeah no it was pretty it was pretty intense but it was one of those things where is crazy that sounds the memory of that night in that restaurant it was like stars and diamonds everything about that it was the greatest thing and all the bad stuff you completely forget it because those connections are so important so it really is just a general sense I'm not going down today for a very I don't even drink can you imagine me drinking oh my gosh that would be a wreck so they don't say what you have to drink they drink there you go water she's trying to promote a healthy living if it makes you happy go way get everybody drunk out there with a lot of happy viewer's so it's really a general sense so it's not a specific thing it's really your own opinion